Nine drops of Blood
by Kattine
Summary: When a new prophecy involving Voldemort arises, three different magical worlds must combine in order to stop him. Buffy Harry Potter Charmed crossover. Brand new Chapter up!
1. And the story beings

And the Story begins – Chapter one 

**Note** This is a crossover with Harry Potter, Buffy the vampire Slayer and Charmed. They will pretty much have equal parts in this story.

**Rating** PG

**Spoilers** For Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix

For Buffy: The entire series

For Charmed: Up to Necromancing the stone (season 5)

**Note**: The events in both episodes of Charmed and Buffy indicted above occurred in July as opposed to May. Slight AU I know, but it works out better this way. Because there has been mentions of Harry Potter in both Buffy and Charmed we're just going to pretend they never happened okay. ;) Which means Charmed have never encountered the wizards. (We're off to see the wizard) Also in order for Buffy and Charmed to fit together the episode where Paige became a vampire (Bite me) also never happened and Phoebe has never mentioned Buffy before.

**Shipper **This isn't a romance story, but there are couples that form. I will only reveal one at the moment and that is Phoebe Halliwell/Xander Harris

**Summary** When a new prophecy involving Voldemort arises, three different magical worlds must combine in order to stop him.

**Disclaimer** Sadly I do not own any of these characters, but unless you're JK Rowling, Joss Wheldon or Brad Kern you don't own them either!

**Credit** The prophecy in this story is actually an altered version of the one in Becsulet's 'Blood of Enemies Blood of Friends' ...which can be found at size=1 width=100% noshade>It was all over. Buffy looked into the deep crater. It looked like something that would be the result of a large meteorite. But it wasn't. Spike had done this. Buffy had done this. Willow had done this. Xander, Giles, Dawn, Anya, Andrew, Faith, Robin and all the Slayers had also done this. They were victorious. The First, its Uber-vampires and the bringers had been defeated. The first watchers had also been beaten. Faith and Buffy were no longer the 'chosen-two'. They had been freed from that responsibility. 

But it was a bittersweet victory. As Buffy continued to look into the large hole before her sadness came over her. In that hole used to be her house, her stuff, her mothers grave, even her stuffed pig that she had loved so much. Spike was dead and Buffy had a feeling Anya was too. Many of the slayers Buffy had trained herself were also now fallen soldiers.

But with her friends around her happily joking and chatting about what to do next, Buffy's mind was thrust back to the thoughts of what they had just accomplished. Soon Buffy would become the longest living Slayer in History.

"Yeah Buffy what are we gonna to do now?" Dawn curiously asked her sister.

A small smile formed on Buffy's lips when Dawn asked the question. Her mind drifted back to the conversation with Angel in the graveyard. Two words formed in her mind.

_ICookie dough/I _

"Buffy?" Dawn poked her sister after not getting an answer right away.

"Oh" Buffy turned to her sister and poked her back. The she turned around to look back at the school bus. "Well first we need to get to a hospital. We slayers may heal quickly, but not without a good dose of morphine. And then we better head to Los Angeles. I told Angel to be prepared if we lost, he'll want to know what happened. And we don't have much money…unless one of you stashed all your savings in you're pockets?"

Willow couldn't help to smile at the hopeful look in Buffy's eyes. It reminded her of high school Buffy, the one who joked about stealing a vampire's shoes before staking her.

"Damm…okay I'll start a new fashion trend then. It'll be called 'blood and hole in shirt'. It'll be all the rage in Paris" Buffy joked as she stuck her finger through the hole in her shirt.

"Buffy" Giles gasped not realizing that Buffy had been cut so badly. She easy ran and jumped on the bus he had no idea.

"I'm fine. Let's get going. I want to be at Angel's before dark" Buffy brushed Giles concern off and walked back towards the bus, this time she was going to be riding inside it.

* * *

Harry starred out his window. It was pitch black outside. Harry was looking up at the stars and the moon. Since it was summer there were little clouds around blocking the stars view. From his astronomy class Harry could pick out a few consolations. Then again he probably failed his astronomy O.W.L so maybe he was getting it all wrong. Harry could have sworn he had heard his professor tell him that the Southern Cross could only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere, but for some reason Harry could see it in the sky. Or maybe it was Orion's belt. 

The stars though meant little to Harry. Looking at them was just a distraction from the dreams. They were similar ones he had suffered after Cedric's death. Harry was grateful that Dudley had been sent to some wrestling summer camp. Harry didn't need his cousin harassing him about Sirius.

Harry glanced at his alarm clock, borrowed from Dudley's room. In about an hour the sun would be up and the Daily prophet would be delivered to Harry. After about half an hour of reading about the wizard world, Harry would make his way downstairs for breakfast. There Petunia would be in the kitchen cooking something for the two males of the house. Harry would then shower and go for a walk. This was the way each day had gone since Harry returned from Hogwarts.

He had to admit though that life was certainly better than it had ever been. Dudley going away was probably the best thing that ever happened to Harry. It meant that Petunia was forced to pay Harry attention for once out of lack of things to do. She had taken him shopping for new clothes and even treated him to (a very cheap) lunch. Vernon didn't dare question Harry watching the news anymore and allowed Harry to watch TV, so long as it was a program that he and Petunia wanted to watch of course. Harry was still not even close to being as spoiled as Dudley was.

Currently Harry was lying on his bed waiting for the Daily prophet owl to arrive. However instead of one owl there were two. Harry paid for his newspaper before turning to the unfamiliar owl. This one was very upper class in appearance. His feathers had been kept well and his chest puffed out the way it should. Harry wondered if an owl could possibly look pompous. It gave a small hoot to Harry indicating to him to take the letter off its leg. Harry obeyed and watched the owl swiftly fly off into the west.

Harry looked down at the letter. He knew this handwriting. It was the same handwriting on the thousands of letters Harry had received from Hogwarts. It was his O.W.L results.

"Finally" Harry muttered as he ripped open the envelope.

It was a very formal letter as Harry expected. Similar to the letters he received towards the end of each summer from Hogwarts. Harry closed his eyes for a moment before turning over the page for his results. Quickly he reopened them and turned the page to face the music.

Harry hadn't done all that bad in the end. Naturally his History of Magic and Astronomy O.W.Ls were not too great because of the interruptions. Divination was by far Harry's worse subject. He wondered how Ron had gone in it. Hermione had been right most of it was nonsense. Harry had done well in the rest of his subjects, scoring the Outstanding he expected in Defence Against the Dark arts.

_That'll show Umbridge_ Harry thought to himself happily. He hoped that the rest of Dumbledore's army had also scored well on the O.W.Ls and exams.

The biggest surprise for Harry was a confusing form of happiness. Next to the word 'potions' was a clearly marked E for exceeds expectations. For a few seconds Harry wondered if the examiners had somehow gotten confused with the letters P and E. Harry remembered Snape stating he would only accept those with O.W.Ls of 'outstanding' into his class, but surly McGongall would keep her promise to Harry. This meant he still had a chance of becoming an Auror.

The day was already beginning to look a little brighter than the others. It had also been three days since Harry's last phone call to Hermione's place. Since Ron didn't have a phone Harry had chosen to ring Hermione instead in order to keep to Moody's rule of 'contact every three days'. Harry would be able to happily talk to his friend about his results without feeling incredibly disappointed or guilty.

Though as Harry made his way down the stairs for breakfast he had a sudden feeling that something was coming. As if he had just remembered a dream or a buried memory. Harry passed it off as the fact that the smell of Vernon's horrible aftershave still remaining in the air.

* * *

Paige sat in the kitchen playing peek-a-boo with her nephew Wyatt who sat in his high chair. 

Paige covered her hands over her eyes for a few minutes for taking them off and saying 'peek-a-boo' to Wyatt. He appeared to be enjoying the time with his aunt, giggling throughout the game. Paige placed her hands over her eyes again as someone entered the room.

"Hey Piper" She coolly said before she continued her game with Wyatt.

"Morning Paige. Have you seen Leo anywhere?" Piper asked.

"Leo had to orb out. One of his charges needed him I think" Paige explained the whereabouts of her brother in law.

Piper's lips pursed together. Since Leo and her started counselling she was trying to accept that her husband would often be called away. Piper had to learn to respect what Leo did and make allowances for him. It didn't mean she had to enjoy doing it.

"I hope he's not too long. I wanted to go on a picnic today" Piper commented as she pulled a bowl of strawberries out from the fridge.

"We can go on a picnic if you like. I can work on my tan" Paige said looking down at her very pale arms.

"I don't think it's too romantic to have your sister feed you chocolate covered strawberries" Piper sighed as she sat down at the table with the bowl.

Paige reached into it pulling out a large strawberry. She then placed it into her sisters mouth. Paige wasn't a good aim and had smushed it slightly on Piper's lips.

"Yeah I see what you mean" Paige laughed as Piper wiped strawberry juice off her lips.

Piper smiled back at her sister. Compared to her other two sisters, Piper had only known the youngest Halliwell sister for a short time. Yet they had become close quickly. It was the fact they were often thrown into life threading situations. People tended to bond quickly over those ones rather than the less-thrilling situations. Piper remembered the first time she had called Paige her sister. It was right after she had attempted to kill her. Now Piper would proudly wear a 'Paige Halliwell-Matthews is my sister' t-shirt. After all Wyatt's middle name came from her.

Paige was thinking about something different to Piper. The colour of the strawberries had reminded her of the dream she experienced the night before. Paige had been having reoccurring dreams for the past few nights. After the first one Paige hadn't thought anymore about it, but when the dreams continued Paige got the feeling that something was up.

"You haven't been having weird dreams lately have you?" Paige asked.

"Depends on what you call weird Paige. We don't exactly live in a normal world." Piper pointed out.

"I mean something-is-a-brewing dreams. I can't remember exact details, but I just get this feeling that something big is going down soon. And its not just going to involve us"

"It might just be a dream" Piper hopefully said.

She had learnt to accept magic in her life, but Piper wanted it to remain at a bare minimum. The dreams could mean nothing but Paige's unique mind.

"Or my subconscious trying to tell me something. I did know it was you who walked into the room before remember?"

"Yeah, but you only had two choices. Me or Phoebe. How do you know it wasn't a lucky guess?"

"Because I knew it was you. It was that sixth sense thing Leo was going on about. I've been trying to develop it a little since he told us about it. I think these dreams are real"

"Or hormones?"

"Yeah or hormones."

* * *

It had been a few days since Buffy reached the Hyperion in LA. She had recovered from the gapping wound in her stomach. The other slayers had also begun to recover at a rapid rate, although many bones were still in casts. With the power of Wolfram and Hart, Willow, Giles and Wesley had teamed up together to find the slayers Willow had awoken around LA. Wood was the only one of the group still at the hospital. Being utterly mortal Wood naturally didn't heal as fast as the slayers. Xander happily comforted him by saying he wasn't the only one to be stuck in hospital longer than the rest. 

Now being the owner of Wolfram and Hart, Angel was able to give the Scoobies and the junior slayers money to buy on urgent items of need. They were all extremely grateful for the donation, as most of the slayers were teenagers whose money came from their parents rather than the atm machine.

Buffy and Angel had begun to spend a lot of time together. Buffy although had made it clear that she wasn't even ready to be put in the oven yet. Somehow Angel understood. She had confessed to him that she had told Spike she loved him. At first Angel had been repulsed by it, but there was nothing he could do about it. After all if Buffy knew he and Cordelia had feelings for each other she probably would think he was drugging his blood.

* * *

Dumbledore sat in his office with Professor Trelawney. The pair was having a cup of tea and chatting about the summer. She was surprised that Dumbledore had invited her for tea considering he was extremely busy with the war on Voldemort. But even Dumbledore had to take tea breaks every now and then. Plus it was an excuse to have some sweets, which Dumbledore could never resist. Trelawney however could resist them and spoke over Dumbledore unwrapping a lemon drop. 

"I do hope many students chose divination at the N.E.W.T level. I do have some students, which show signs of being seers. I expect those to receive O's for their O.W.L.S" Trelawney told the headmaster. "In a times like these we can surly use more se-"

With a sudden jerk Trelawney's eyes rolled back into her head showing only the whites. Dumbledore knew what this meant. For the second time in her life Trelawney was about to give Dumbledore a real prediction. Quickly he whipped out his quill and parchment as he jotted down every word the seer said.

Once she had finished her prophecy, Trelawney excused herself to go the bathroom stating she felt ill. This gave the headmaster a chance to read over what his teacher had said. His lips curled into a smile and his eyes twinkled. Most people would have seen the prophecy as a negative occurrence, but Dumbledore saw it differently. This meant he would finally have an excuse to meet those who greatly intrigued him.

With time being of the utmost importance, Dumbledore quickly drafted two letters sending them off with two of the schools owls.

* * *

Questions? Comments? 


	2. The Telling

Part 2- The Telling

Notes: Thanks for the reviews.

Harm Marie – Wow. Thanks.

Marcus Lazarus – Spike won't be featuring in this story.

Goldenshadows – No this isn't going to be a Bangel story. The Angel crew are only appearing briefly at the start of the story.

Allen Pitt – I need to have the references removed because each group (with the exception of the all-knowing Dumbledore) have extremely little knowledge of each other.

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed:D

* * *

As Phoebe jogged up the manor's driveway returning home from her long run she saw a large looking bird fly in through the attic window. Curious at the strange sight Phoebe hurried inside. She remembered last time she had seen an owl at the Halliwell manor. Unfortunately Phoebe didn't think it'd be another hot naked guy. Once indoors she went up the stairs two by two. One she reached the attic she could see that the owl held a letter in its mouth.

"Pip-" Phoebe's call for her sisters was interrupted when they entered the room shortly after she did. They had seen the owl outside the window and been just as curious as Phoebe.

"Another mystery owl?" Piper guessed curiously while Paige took a letter from its mouth before it flew out the window again. Piper shifted Wyatt on her hip as she spoke.

"Owls are delivering our mail now? And I thought we were heading towards using e-mail only" Paige commented examining the letter. "This is very strange. It's addressed to the Charmed ones and it has no postcode, just our address"

"Let me see" Paige handed Piper the letter. "It also has the united states written on it so it must be from overseas"

"Open it" Phoebe pleaded curious to know what's inside.

Piper placed Wyatt on the floor before she ripped open the envelope and grabbed the letter inside. She allowed the envelope fall to the floor, too curious to be bothered picking it up.

"_Dear Mrs. Piper Halliwell, Ms. Phoebe Halliwell and Ms. Paige Halliwell,_

_My name is Albus Dumbledore. I am headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry in Great Britain. It may alarm you that I know of your magical lives, however please do not be concerned with this. I assure you that I have no intention in harming you._

I regret to inform you that the Dark Lord, Voldemort has returned from his near death state. Although it is unlikely that you know the true nature of his terror, but you may remember about sixteen years ago when there were many mysterious murders committed in Great Britain. Those murders were not caused by a single human serial killer, but the wizard Voldemort and his followers.

_Recently a new prophecy has been recorded which includes a mention of the Charmed ones, The Slayer and her friends and also Voldemort. Again I do not mean to alarm you, but in light of this new discovery it is best for you to travel to Los Angeles to a hotel named the Hyperion. There you will find the Slayer and her friends. I will be traveling there as soon as I can to explain the situation in much greater detail. I have informed the Slayer, Buffy Summers, to expect you. _

_Yours truly,_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry."_

"Huh…" Piper was confused and upset at the same time. "Well I have one word….LEO!"

Soon the familiar blue and white illumination appeared next to Piper eventually forming into her husband. He had been attending to a charge while running from a demon so he was little worn out from the exercise.

"Read this" Piper handed the letter to the whitelighter.

Immediately after Leo finished the letter the sisters pounced with their questions.

"How does this Dumbledore know about us?"

"Why didn't you tell us about this school?"

"Are there other schools?"

"Who the hell is this Voldemort?"

"And what's a Slayer?"

"Is this Dumbledore trustworthy?"

"What's this about a prophecy?"

"What the hell is in L.A?"

"Slow down" Leo interrupted.

"Leo, have you heard of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore?" Phoebe asked curious to know more about who sent them the letter.

"Makes you grateful that our families thing was just P names" Piper smirked.

"I have heard him mentioned up there" Leo replied. "But I don't actually know who he is. Have you looked in the Book of Shadows?"

Realizing that was what they should have done first the girls quickly gathered around the book as Paige eagerly flipped through hopping to see any signs of Dumbledore, Voldemort, Hogwarts or the Slayer. There was absolutely nothing.

"Well that was pretty useless" Phoebe said looking to Leo again for answers.

"I'll go ask the Elders what they know" Leo told them.

"Don't take too long honey" Piper said to her husband as they shared a kiss goodbye.

"I'll try not to" He replied before orbing off.

Piper wasn't too happy with Leo disappearing off again. Especially when she didn't have her questions answered. Counseling had taught Piper to not make a fuss about it with Leo. It was something he had to do. That didn't mean she had to enjoy it.

Paige however wasn't thinking about Leo going off to the Elders for an unknown amount of time. She was still thinking about a letter. Paige had always been rather curious in her life. She wanted know more and she wasn't keen on waiting for Leo. Paige had a feeling that Phoebe and Piper were thinking the same thing by the looks on their faces.

"I think we should just go to L.A. I'll be the only way we can find out what this is all about" Paige asked hoping she was reading her sisters correctly.

"I agree. We have no idea how long Leo is going to be and even if the Elders will have any information. I'll start packing the car" Piper replied picking up Wyatt.

"Car? But we can just orb there" Phoebe pointed out.

"We don't know who these people are we're meant to be meeting. We don't really even know who Dumbledore is. I'd rather do things the normal way until we know everything. This hotel may have normal people staying at it; we don't want to be exposed. Besides for once none of us are snowed under with work or love lives. I think the trip will do us good" Piper explained as she placed the letter back in the envelope.

"Well I better clean the car then. I kinda split my drink the other day when I borrowed it" Phoebe admitted, quickly darting out of the room.

"Phoebe!" Piper exclaimed.

* * *

The owl that Dumbledore had sent to Buffy wasn't as fit as the other one. It didn't arrive at the Hyperion until after dusk, which meant all of the slayers were out patrolling with Angel, Gunn and Faith. Buffy and Dawn were happily playing cards when the owl flew straight through the window and onto the table they were playing on in the office.

"Hey!" Buffy screamed with surprise.

"Buffy it has a letter in its beak" Dawn realized quickly and pried the letter from the bird and handed it to Buffy. "Weird. It's addressed to you, but in the exact place we are"

"Buffy Summers, the office at the Hyperion hotel, Los Angeles, United States of America" Buffy read out loud. "Spooky"

"Did Dawnie cheat at cards Buff, 'cause I heard a yell" Willow entered the office with Xander in tow.

They had been talking a lot about loosing the ones they loved. Helping each other grieve. Though neither were particularly close to each others partners they always cared deeply for each other.

It didn't take long for the pair to notice the brown owl upon the table. It was recovering its breath before taking off a few seconds later.

"Is there a special reason for the owl?" Xander curiously asked.

Normally he would have thought of some kind of joke, but he really wasn't in the mood.

"It delivered this letter" Buffy showed her friends the envelope quickly before she ripped open the letter.

It was very similar to the Halliwells letter, but instead of telling Buffy to travel to LA, it explained that three women and a child would be arriving soon. Buffy's first reaction however was slightly different to the Halliwells.

"Oh Goody. Another big bad to fight. And here I was thinking that I'd get some time off" Buffy complained handing Dawn, who was the nearest person, the letter.

Buffy then exited the room to find Giles. Unfortunately she also ran into Andrew who wanted to know why Buffy was in such a hurry. 'Curiosity killed the cat' Buffy mumbled to herself after she told Andrew to head to the office to be filled in. She eventually found Giles with Wesley in what used to be Cordilera's room. Wesley had been telling Giles the story of his life since they last met. Buffy straightforwardly told them to come down to the office, as there was something she needed to discuss.

By the time Buffy returned Andrew was now reading the letter after the others had been through it. Buffy tapped her foot near her ex-foe forcing him to speed-read. Once he had finished Buffy promptly handed the letter to her watcher.

"Voldemort." Andrew said out loud as Buffy took the letter away from him. "Now that's a name that can strike fear in one's heart. Not like 'The First"

"Interesting" Giles muttered, passing the letter to Wesley.

"Interesting? That's all you can say? A week after we've just survived the biggest battle of our lives this letter turns up. Somehow this Bumle-bore dude knows that I'm the Slayer. Or a Slayer now anyway. But he knows it's me, not just the myth. It's nice to know that you're famous, but not when some guy sends you a random letter telling you that you're involved in yet another prophecy and you must help in fighting his big bad. Plus there are other people involved in this. Bumle-bore expects them to just rock up at this hotel probably knowing just as much as we do" Buffy vented.

"It's _D_umble_d_ore Buffy. I do no believe this wizard is some 'dude' either" Giles replied.

He looked to Wesley who had now finished examining the letter.

"Is the name familiar to you?" Giles asked his fellow ex-watcher.

"Yes. I think my father mentioned him once to me. Dumbledore had provided invaluable information to the council I believe." Wesley informed the group.

"Considering I don't exactly trust the council and they're kinda blown up, this is not helping" Buffy complained.

"I've heard a brief mention of Dumbledore before. Without Wesley I would have been left wondering why I have heard it. Dumbledore is a great wizard. I don't know much about him. However any mention I have heard has placed Dumbledore in a good light" Giles explained.

Willow was surprised at the fact that Giles knew so little. If Dumbledore was a great wizard shouldn't Giles and Wesley know more about him? Shouldn't Tara or Amy or the witches in the coven in England have heard of him? Then there was the question of Hogwarts. Surly Willow would know if there was a school of witchcraft and wizardry. She would have gone to one herself along with maybe Tara and Amy. Maybe it was just a British thing though. Willow had no idea.

"How come I wasn't invited to attend one of these wizard schools which we've never heard of before?" Willow asked.

"Oh! Oh! Me!" Dawn waved her hand as if she was in school again. Giles gave her a strange looked and waved his hand at her permitting her to answer. "I'm going to go with the one word answer of Hellmouth"

"That may be a possible explanation to this. I suggest that we wait for these people that Dumbledore says should be arriving here. They may know more than us. In the mean time I'm going to ring some of the remaining watchers and see if they have heard of Dumbledore" Giles replied.

"I hate waiting" Buffy whined knowing there wasn't much she could do at the moment.

* * *

Harry's birthday sadly was still not spent with his friends. It seemed to be the day after Harry's birthday was the day Dumbledore decided it was safe for Harry to leave the Dursley's. Harry had no idea why he couldn't spend his birthday with his friends, but it became a tradition for Harry to spend it alone.

Yet Harry still did receive a fair amount of presents. His favourite being from the twins, an invisible spider that only the owner can control. It was naturally inspired by Ron's fear. Harry spent most of the day watching TV as the Dursley's had gone out for the day. Vernon had permitted him to watch the TV whenever they were out. Of course Harry was only allowed to watch the smallest least expensive TV in the kitchen, but it was something entertaining at least.

"It's a pity we're going to L.A on business. I've never been there before and I hear they have some great shopping malls" Paige sighed as Piper drove out of the driveway.

In the backseat Phoebe hummed a lullaby to Wyatt to get him to sleep. He had never been a fan of the car, he loved orbing a little too much. Since Leo was with the Elders, Piper hadn't bothered to leave a note. He should know that Piper wouldn't wait for his return to get answers.

Harry arrived at 12 Grimmulad place with odd feelings. He had just flown back to the Black home on his firebolt once again. Since Harry was Sirius's godson he had inherited the house and allowed the Order to continue to use it. When Lupin had informed him of this, Harry did not care at all. He simply told his father's friend that the Order has permission to continue its use.

Harry was happy about the fact that Ron and Hermoine would also be there to keep him company (along with the rest of the Weasley family excluding Percy who although was now on speaking terms with his family, refused to join them). But returning to the last place Sirius had lived just brought back Harry's grief. Hermoine had actually suggested that Harry and Ron come to her place, as Voldemort wouldn't expect Harry to be spending the last month of summer at a muggle home. But the Order had concluded that it was much safer for Harry to return to Grimmulad place where they could keep close watch on him rather than having to tail him all around the muggle world.

The O.W.L results had managed to find their way to the house, much to Ron's disgust. Together the trio sat in Ron and Harry's room talking about their marks. Ron shared similar results with Harry while Hermonie's were predictably better than both of the boys.

With the O.W.L results out, Harry could breath a sigh of relief knowing that everyone's attention would be focused on their schooling rather than the workings of Harry's mind. The situation was fine for Harry, until Lupin passed on a message from Dumbledore. He told Harry that it would be best to tell Hermoine and Ron about the prophecy as soon as he was able to. Dumbledore explained to Harry that there was a need for Hermione and Ron to know. The reason, Dumbledore did not specify.

Harry trusted Dumbledore, he couldn't think of a valid reason for keeping the information from his friends anymore. It wouldn't harm them if they knew what the prophecy was about. The same afternoon he received his message Harry sat down with his friends in his and Ron's room. The twins had a massive sale happening at their store, which required Ginny to go with them. There was no Order meeting that afternoon which meant the house only contained the trio plus Mrs. Weasley who remained downstairs in the kitchen.

"Harry what is it?" Hermione asked as Harry closed the door.

He had simply told them that he wanted to talk to them in private. The pair had followed him from the kitchen to the bedroom not knowing what was going on. Harry had not been acting his normal self since his arrival at Grimmulad place, but they had assumed that was because of the loss of Sirius. The loss of the only real parent figure would naturally make Harry feel numb.

"Do you remember the prophecy in the Ministry that Malfory wanted?" Harry asked he sat down on his bed. Hermione and Ron were both sitting on Ron's bed.

"The one that was smashed?" Ron replied with another question.

"Yeah the one with Voldemort and me" Harry reminded them as Ron naturally flinched at the mention of the Dark Lord's name.

"You know what it said didn't you? Dumbledore told you didn't he?" Hermione asked further proving that she was the smartest witch Harry knew.

"Yes. After we came back from the ministry. It was Trelawney who er…prophesied it. Dumbledore had gone to see her for an interview and she told him about a prophecy about me and Voldemort." Harry began.

He paused for a moment knowing that both Ron and Hermione saw the divinations teacher as a complete fraud. It would certainly be hard for Hermione to accept the fact that Trelawney at least had some seer ability.

Slowly Harry recalled what Dumbledore had told him that night in his office. Harry intently left out the part about smashing Dumbledore's things. Though he fumbled a little through it, having to correct himself at various points. Hermione helped him with soothing looks, while Ron with curious ones. Once finished there was a short silence in the air until Ron spoke.

"So that's why Voldemort was after you're parents" Ron bluntly said as the revelation was the same as discovering he put his shoes on the wrong way.

"Yeah" Harry didn't want to say much. He wanted to hear Hermione and Ron's reactions.

However Hermione herself was still stunned by the new information. She knew the prophecy had to say something that involved Harry and Voldemort. After all it did have their names on it. Hermione was left wondering why Voldemort had sent his Death Eaters after the prophecy, why Harry had been lured there, for what Sirius had lost his life for. Now she knew. For the past month Hermione had been trying to think of what the prophecy may be, but she could have never guessed exactly what Harry had told her.

"So this means…you have to kill Voldemort or-or….he has to kill you?" Hermione quizzed.

"That's basically it. Me and Voldemort. Fight to the death. Should be real exciting stuff" Harry sarcastically said.

"Oh Harry!" Hermione cried, partly sympathetic, party irritated by his attitude.

"How come you didn't tell us this before? It's been over a month since that night at the ministry" Ron asked.

"I didn't want to. I didn't want to think about it. Then this afternoon Dumbledore sent me this letter, Lupin gave it to me, telling me to tell you too about the prophecy" Harry produced the letter from the drawer in his bedside table.

Hermione read through it at a fast pace. She was used to reading a large number of books in a short amount of time and remembering it all. She had proven that to Umbridge last year rather smugly. Ron took a little longer to read the letter. He preferred to discuss Qudditch matches than read books.

"Something has to be going on." Hermione stated.

"Something is always going on with you-know-how. I bet him and Wormtail sit in their big lounge chairs each night and Wormtail asks 'What are we going to do tonight my Dark Lord?' and you-know-who replies 'We're going to do what we always do Wormtail. We're going to try and take over the world!'" Ron joked.

"_Ron_" Hermione gave him a dirty look. "Harry doesn't need you're jokes right now."

"Yeah I do." Harry argued. "Anything funny is good at the moment. Where'd you hear that anyway?"

"I dunno. It was something Dean said once" Ron shrugged.

* * *

References:

'What are we going to do tonight my Dark Lord?' and you-know-who replies 'We're going to do what we always do Wormtail. We're going to try and take over the world!' – From every single episode of 'Pinky and the Brain'. I just thought it'd be funny if Voldemort and Wormtail actually did this. I needed something to end the scene so I chose this joke.

* * *

OT: I have a question for an Angel story I'm very slowly writing...Drusilla is still alive right? The last time we saw her (excluding flashbacks) was in BtVS's 'Crush' right? Dru hasn't shown up anywhere since then? 


	3. When Worlds Collide

Part 3-

A/N: This is quite a long chapter. This is how everything fits in together. It may be a little awaked, but after reading various Buffy/Hp and Buffy/Charmed fics this is what I came up with.

Tanydwr Yeah I hate whinny Harry too. Basically I decided to make him deal with it…for now. ;)

ztacel – Fast is what I need at the moment for the story so yes it will slow down in the 5th chapter. I just want everyone together and knowing what's going on.

Allen Pitt – Just so you know Dru isn't going to make an appearance in this story. She's a completely different fic I'm writing set late in the 5th season of Angel….I should really work on that some more...lol.

Almadynis – Basically baby-sit him for most of the time. He's annoying isn't he? LOL. But I wanted Cole out of the picture and I wanted the stuff the girls experienced from 'Sense and Sensibility' so I had to keep him.

Thanks for all the reviews!

* * *

Those out on patrol had returned home not long after Buffy received the letter. While the slayers headed off to bed, the others joined their friends in the foyer of the hotel. Andrew had placed himself on cook duty. The oven had been out of use for some time, but Willow with her goddess powers had charmed it so Andrew would be entertained. He handed the arrivals drinks and placed some near black cookies on the table.

"Their meant to be that colour" Andrew quickly explained before anyone could criticize.

Cooking was the only helpful thing he could do at the time, he didn't want the others to believe he couldn't do it. Just as Xander was about to take a bite of a cookie three women entered the hotel.

The tallest had red hair, a little lighter than Willow's, she was carrying a shoulder bag which was pretty full. She appeared a little less cautious than the other two who entered with her. Her milky white complexion was that had caught Xander's attention the most. It reminded him that of Spike's or even Angel's vampire skin.

The second women that caught Xander's eye was carrying a baby. Xander was not at all used to the sight of babies. In fact he tired to remember the last time he had actually seen one. For some reason the morgue came to mind, Xander prayed that wasn't it.

The mother had long well cared for brown hair. Some of it fell over her shoulders, contrasting with her baby's blonde hair. The scar on her eyebrow gave them a very distinctive look. She did not carry any bags with her. Both hands were holding the baby, one supporting him by his bottom, the other on his back. She seemed to be holding him rather close to her as if for some protection. This woman certainly looked a little nervous as she entered the hotel.

Finally Xander's eye fell upon the third woman. Her skin was darker than the first one. Her hair was the darkest of the three, about the same colour as Xander's own. She appeared to be carrying the luggage of the second women and her own in one large suitcase on wheels. Though it wasn't too heavy as she easily wheeled it into the foyer with grace. There was something about this final woman that told Xander this is what he should have looked at first. He didn't dwell much on it though, his brain had failed him many times during his life, why start listening to it now?

"I'm sorry, this hotel isn't accepting guests" Angel said after rising from his chair.

"Oh!" Buffy quickly got to her feet realizing that Angel hadn't read the letter yet. "Angel these people aren't guests…or maybe they are or will be….it's a little confusing….I assume you are the Charmed Ones"

It was obvious that Buffy was feeling a little awkward as she spoke. After all Dumbledore had simply told her in the letter that the Charmed ones, Piper, Phoebe and Paige, were to hopefully be arriving at the hotel soon. Buffy wasn't even sure if she trusted Dumbledore yet, why should she trust three women he sent to her?

"Yep. Are you Buffy Summers, the Slayer? We were told to come here and meet you" Phoebe explained.

"Yeah" Buffy admitted. "But I'm not the slayer anymore…it's a long story-"

"Willow made every potential slayer into a full blown ass kicking one" Dawn interrupted.

She wasn't feeling as uncomfortable with the newcomers as her sister. After all she was sharing a bathroom with a number of girls she barley knew for months. These three were just a little older than the average slayer.

"Apparently not that long" Buffy muttered under her breath.

Only Angel heard her with his vampire hearing.

"I'm Piper Halliwell, these are my sisters Phoebe and Paige." Piper came forward to introduce her family. She then heaved Wyatt up a little more on her waist. "And this is my son Wyatt."

"I'm Angel" He replied.

Out of politeness Buffy then proceeded by introducing the rest of the group. For some reason Andrew gave a small bow when Buffy said his name. Paige gave a small laugh. The last man to do that was someone who thought she was an evil queen from the dark ages.

There was then a silence amongst the group. No one had a clue what to do next. Dumbledore hadn't exactly left any instructions beyond the meeting other than he'd be there as soon as he could be. No one had any idea when that would be, so what would they do in the meantime?

Xander began to throw his burnt cookie up in the air and try and catch it. For the first few goes Xander did well catching it every try. Then at one point Xander threw the cookie a little too far to the left and it fell to the floor. However it did not crumble like a normal cookie would. Xander looked to Andrew who just shrugged. Cookies were not his forte. If only someone had requested a funnel cake, Andrew could make that.

Paige began to fiddle with the necklace, moving the small pendant around on its chain. Piper brushed the hair from her face using the hand not supporting Wyatt. Phoebe sat down on the suitcase.

No one was making eye contact with each other. No one knew exactly what to say or how to go on. They were each curious about the unknown group, but no one wanted to say anything. It was odd for the people in the group to be so silent, but the situation was not one they had been in before. Never before had they had an unknown wizard tell them to meet people they had never heard of.

"So…Do you know anymore about what was in the letter Dumbledore sent? Or why it was sent by owl?" Paige began the conversation.

"No-not really." Giles stuttered. "We've been attempting to research any information about Dumbledore, Hogwarts and Voldemort in the past couple of hours."

"And the Charmed ones. We don't really know who you are" Dawn interjected. "All Dumbledore said was that the Charmed ones were coming. Andrew had this idea that you'd be prince charming or something"

Andrew looked embarrassed, as the three sisters were obviously not princes. Piper gave him a small reassuring smile. It had made the entire group feel a little easier with each other now for some reason. Perhaps humiliating Andrew was the key to getting rid of the awkward feeling.

"Well you should have just asked me about them" Angel spoke up. "I've heard the legend somewhere before. Each generation of Warren witches would grow stronger and stronger until three sisters were born. They are strongest of the Warren line. The Charmed ones."

Phoebe was both surprised and impressed that Angel knew about them. She had no idea that the legend was that well known.

"I've been around for a while, I've heard a few things in my time" Angel said.

He didn't mention the reason he had heard the legend. Angelus had once fed off one in the Warren line. It was a great taste in his mouth.

"It isn't a legend" Piper commented, smiling now feeling more comfortable with the group. "If I had a dollar for every time a demon tired to kill us because of who we are I'd be rich"

Buffy couldn't help but smile. She had the same problem too over the years.

"You aren't so special, Buffster here doesn't get through a week without having something come after her 'cause she's the slayer" Xander argued in a good-natured way.

"So what does vampire slayer mean exactly?" Paige asked.

"Everyone find a comfortable seat. I'm afraid there's going to a lot of storytelling" Wesley announced knowing that each group would now have yet another unknown world to learn about.

"In every generation there a chosen one…." Buffy began with a fake English accent, mocking Giles as she spoke.

* * *

Harry had sworn Ron and Hermoine to secrecy about the prophecy. Though he suspected that the only people in the house that didn't know anything about it were the twins (who were searching for a place to live) and Ginny. There was no evidence of any change in Harry's behavior. He still remained quiet, refusing to enter the room of Sirius's mother's portrait and family tree. The Order continued with their duties as normal, keeping those under age away as best they could. The twins continued their attempts to hear anything from the frequent meetings. They hadn't heard anything interesting besides the fact that Fudge's abilities were being to be questioned by the magical public who were in a panic again.

Then during one of Harry's sleepless nights, a golden feather fell onto his bed along with a letter. Harry instantly recognized it as Fawkes and realized it was from his headmaster. The explained that Harry's old divinations teacher surprisingly was going for some sort of record with correct prophecies.

"Why does everything involve me" Harry sighed as he read the letter to himself.

As Harry read on he discovered that the prophecy involved Hermione and Ron too. Harry read that part of the letter over and over. He didn't understand how his friends could be part of something just like Harry was. They were always the sidekicks not the ones involved. Harry didn't want them to be involved. He didn't want them as sidekicks either though. But Dumbledore had written clearly that Ron and Hermoine were both involved just as much as Harry.

Dumbledore continued with his letter, telling Harry that there were others that were part of the prophecy too. These others had magic, which was similar, yet different to Harry's own. Harry and his friends would need to meet these people who had been told to gather at a hotel in Los Angeles. Dumbledore informed Harry that he would arrive at Grimmulad place in order to use a portakey to get the Harry, Ron and Hermoine, along with himself, to the hotel in the States.

Harry realized this was the reason why Dumbledore had wanted Harry to tell his friends about the prophecy about him and Voldemort. He sighed as he wished Dumbledore just told him everything from the start. But at least Harry would be able to soon say he'd been to America.

* * *

"I will arrive at 5pm your time with three of my students who are unfortunately also involved in the prophecy" Leo read out loud from a second letter from Dumbledore.

Fawkes had delivered this letter this time as it needed to reach the states by a certain time. Dumbledore of course knew that the groups had all gathered in Los Angeles by now.

It had been a little over 24 hours since the Halliwells arrived at the hotel. The two groups had each told their major story and the smaller stories were now beginning to be told. Leo had soon joined them shortly once his whitelighter business was taken care of. Angel had set them up in three rooms in the hotel. It was still very crowded with Slayers who Angel was collecting through Wolfram and Hart from all over the states. Faith and Wood were in charge of dealing with them as Buffy had other things to do. Plus of course Wood had authoritative experience and Faith felt ready to redeem herself as a leader of some sort.

"Good" Buffy replied. "Most of the slayers will be out preparing for patrol by then. The hotel will be a little less chaotic that way"

"That's about two hours away. Should we…um…prepare anything? Like uh…I could sacrifice some goats or something or or…we could prepare a fruit platter or something?" Willow timidly asked looking towards the two watchers and the angel.

"No" Giles answered smiling at Willow's nervousness.

He didn't know much about Dumbledore except that he was a great wizard. When he told Willow this it just made her more nervous. The Halliwells didn't appear nervous at all. Then again they didn't have great respect for the 'powers that be' either. They were also a little older and a little more experienced than Willow at this.

"Are you all ready?" Dumbledore asked the three students.

They were gathered in the kitchen of the old Black family home. Somehow the rest of the order had been informed of the same details in Harry's letter and knew the trio would be heading to the states.

When Dumbledore had arrived he simply told the three students to meet him in the kitchen to take the portakey to the Hyperion in Los Angeles. Harry had given Ron and Hermoine the letter a few hours before and they spent the entire time discussing it, with no real conclusions about the mysterious prophecy.

The portkey this time was a large plate bearing the Black family crest. Harry cringed to look at it. Once the four hands were on the plate they were pulled further than Harry had ever traveled before.

As Piper's watch ticked to exactly 5:00pm four people appeared in the middle of the foyer. They appeared in the exact same place Conner had leaped onto about 18 months ago. The foyer was much less crowded than expected. Gunn and Fred had taken the slayers to Wolfram and Hart for training rather than patrol. Faith was spending the night with Robin at the hospital. Andrew had been given some watcher diaries that Wesley had obtained for him to study. Wyatt although was awake and happily crawling around under Dawn's watchful eye. Dawn had never really thought of herself as the motherly type, but she was becoming attached to the magical baby. She was used to being the youngest in the group. It was nice to have some sort of power over someone for once.

"Hello" Dumbledore smiled at the group.

His appearance was greatly different to those around him since he was wearing his brilliant red and golden robe. His accent was noticeable among the Americans. It was graceful yet warm.

"You may have already guessed that I am Albus Dumbledore." He then gestured to the curious students beside him. "And these three are Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermoine Granger"

The three students smiled unsurely, still not knowing who these people were or why Dumbledore had brought them to the states. The three decided it would be better to remain quiet rather than ask questions. They trusted that Dumbledore with time would explain everything. Harry wasn't entirely in the mood to talk much anyway.

"Potter? Is that the name you said?" Leo asked Dumbledore not appearing interested in Harry's famous scar at all.

"Yes. Potter" Dumbledore answered.

Leo's brain clicked. 'Of course a prophecy involving Voldemort would include Harry Potter' he thought to himself. He had heard a few tidbits about Voldemort from the whitelighters located over in England. Leo knew that Harry Potter had caused Voldemort's downfall many years ago.

"Hi, I'm Buffy" She introduced herself.

For some reason Dumbledore's arrival had soothed everyone's nerves slightly. He didn't appear to be some kind of vicious monster wanting to kill some of the most powerful supernatural good in America. Then again everyone in the room also knew that looks could be deceiving. However all the research in the past 24 hours indicated that Dumbledore was completely trustworthy.

"I'm a vampire slayer. These are-"

"Piper Halliwell. I'm a Charmed one"

"Paige Halliwell-Matthew, Charmed one"

"Phoebe Halliwell, Charmed one"

"Willow Rosenberg, witch"

"Xander Harris, just you're average mortal"

"Rupert Giles, Watcher…or rather ex-watcher I suppose since there is no more watchers council"

"Wesley Wydam-Pryce, ex-watcher now Wolfram and Hart employee"

"Leo Wyatt, guardian angel also known as a whitelighter"

"Angel, vampire with a soul and CEO of Wolfram and Hart"

Dawn gave a small laugh at how the others introduced themselves as if they were in the army or something. So formal and official. She bent down and picked up Wyatt before smiling at the three students. They had obviously been a little freaked by Angel's introduction. Soul or no soul, she was sure they wouldn't have met a vampire in that comfy school of theirs.

"I'm Dawn Summers. Sadly Buffy is my sister" Dawn glanced at her elder sister who pouted at her. "If I want to introduce myself the way the others did I guess I could say Dawn Summers, an ex-key to a portal to hell dimension, but it doesn't have the same ring to it. This little one here is Wyatt Halliwell. He belongs to Piper and Leo"

It didn't bother Dawn if the British people knew that she was the key. It had taken her some time to move on from the fact about her true self, but she had come to terms with it now. She had become so much more than just a key a over the past two years.

"The twice blessed child" Dumbledore stated in reference to Wyatt.

"You know about my son?" Piper asked taking the baby from Dawn.

"Yes. I tend to receive news from a variety of sources. I heard about the day magic died in the San Francisco area. It was quiet a miraculous event I've been told" Dumbledore peered over his moon shaped glasses to smile at Wyatt.

Wyatt had known the whole time that all these people were trustworthy. He didn't put up his shield once when they reached Los Angelus. Even when Buffy held him incorrectly Wyatt cried rather than used his magic. It was the same when Dumbledore had arrived. Even though none of the English group had been close to Wyatt he still didn't feel scared of them at all.

"What does it mean by twice blessed?" Harry questioned looking at the child. His mind automatically thought of pureblood wizards. Blessed once by each magical parent.

"Wyatt is part male witch…or I guess wizard is more appropriate, and part whitelighter," Piper explained shifting the boy on her hip.

"He ain't the first" Paige laughed stroking Wyatt's head. She then looked back up at Harry. "I'm the same. Half witch half whitelighter. Wyatt's only special 'cause his mother is a charmed one"

Harry had no idea what that meant, but he assumed it was something good and powerful. After all the three sisters had introduced themselves as Charmed ones. He looked over to Hermoine who quickly whispered to him that the charmed ones were three powerful sisters.

"This is nice with the introductions an all, but I personally would like to get to the big explainy that Dumbledore said he'd give when he arrived here. This Hogwarts school has really sparked my curiosity" Buffy hurried the group.

She wanted to get on with it before the students could ask more questions about slayers, vampires with souls and charmed ones. Dumbledore obviously didn't have time to explain much to his students and Buffy wasn't in the mood to go through it all again. She was rarely patient and wasn't the only one in the room curious to know why they had been gathered together.

"As I expected that it would have Ms Summers. In order to explain the situation completely I will need to start at the very beginning, where magic first began. There are three types of magic" Dumbledore began to explain to his attentive audience. "Each is fairly separated to it's own world. The oldest of the three is known as Wicca. It is the magic that comes from the environment around us. In Wicca everything is connected"

Willow looked to Giles remembering her lessons in England with the coven. She remembered the flower she had brought through the ground, and feeling the Sunnydale Hellmouth.

"As it is the 'first' magic it was free for everyone. Anyone could learn to perform Wicca, but not everyone is skilled at it. It calls on ancient gods to perform difficult spells, while simpler spells involve one-word incarnations. Magical evolution is similar to muggle (non-magical people) scientific theory of evolution. It began as Wicca, but other magic's branched off.

The first to do so is our magic. Magic that requires wands, although because it was formed from Wicca there are some aspects of it where no wand is required. Our magic uses various incantations and potions. We are the only type out of the three that has built up a large community and schooling. Not everyone can perform wand magic. It requires special skills.

Then there was the formation of magical powers where the witches have specific abilities; these abilities are now referred to as special powers. Each power enables its carrier to fight evil in a different way. The witches and wizards that have this form of magic are the only ones to receive whitelighters, which is what Leo is. There is something very common with all three of these magic's. Emotions drive magic. Emotions drive us all."

The group sat in silence letting it all sink in. Those who had the power of magic now understood the differences between them and why they were never accepted to this Hogwarts School. Harry, Ron and Hermoine were all amazed that Dumbledore knew so much about other kinds of magic. They were sure that the Ministry wouldn't bother setting it in the school guidelines to teach them about this. Harry and Ron may have paid attention to Mr.Binns if he told them about other types of magic. Hermoine knew a little about this because she had read it in one of her many books. But she had only heard of this because the Charmed ones were mentioned and the power of the Slayer came from Wiccan magic.

"Okay. So there's you're magic" Xander gestured to Willow. "And then you three with all the cool blowing up and orbing powers." Xander waved his hand to where the Halliwells were. "Finally there's a whole other kind of magic, which uses long wooden sticks." Xander said while glancing at the wand Harry had tucking in his front pocket. "Did they ever think this would get a _little_ confusing?"

"Hogwarts…" Paige began as if she was thinking out loud. "Is a school for your type of magic?"

"Yes. When the students turned eleven they are invited to attend until they reach their seventh year" Dumbledore explained. "We offer a variety of classes which can lead to many jobs in our community"

"Damm….I chose the wrong magic" Paige joked.

"So who's this Foldy dude then?" Buffy pressed on.

If the 'dark lord' was gaining more power she didn't want to spend time on explanations, which could be done properly later.

Harry stiffed a laugh. He tired to imagine how Voldemort would react to being called "Foldy dude". Harry did although notice Ron didn't flinch. Harry guessed it was because it wasn't really the correct name of the dark lord.

"Voldemort-" Dumbledore corrected, this time causing Ron to flinch. "Is the most powerful dark wizard in our world. Sixteen years ago he tired to kill Harry because of a foretelling that Harry has the power to kill Voldemort." Dumbledore had not hesitated in mentioning that prophecy. "One dies while the other survives. Voldemort marked Harry as his equal, which was why Harry survived Voldemort's death curse and has that scar"

Harry lifted his hair to reveal his lightening bolt scar. He was a little angered at Dumbledore for telling them about a prophecy Harry could only tell his friends a few days ago. But he let it pass. He knew there were some reason for this meeting and some reason why they should know everything about his battle with Voldemort.

"Voldemort's goal is to wipe out all muggle born witches and wizards, because he believes that pure-blood is the only type of wizard worth having in the world. He will kill all those who oppose him. Voldemorts followers are called death eaters and this is the second time he has risen to power. After his attempt to murder Harry he became a ghost like creature and only recently regained his body." Dumbledore finished with that same triumphant glitter in his eyes Harry had seen a little over a year ago.

This wasn't like anything the Charmed Ones or the Slayer had battled before. Normally their enemies aimed for either ending the world or killing them. This was a different matter.

"What about this prophecy? I mean that's the reason we're all here right?" Phoebe urged for Dumbledore to continue.

"Sixteen years ago I was fortunate enough to come across a real seer while interviewing for a new professor for Hogwarts. In the past she has made two true…" Dumbledore paused slightly to reflect in the difficulty of saying 'two true' before continuing. "…Predictions, or more correctly called prophecies. And now this woman has added a new prophecy to that list."

With his audience captured, Dumbledore waved his wand. A piece of parchment came out of nowhere and landed in the great wizard's hand.

"This is the prophecy which was foretold to me. I believe it explains a ceremony in which Voldemort will attempt to use blood to gain the power of the First Evil" Dumbledore explained looking at the parchment through his moon shaped glasses.

"So Voldemort wants to steal the power of the First?" Buffy was slightly surprised by this. "Wow, it's gonna be so pissed off with him"

"If you hadn't done that already Buff" Xander added with pride.

"I'm sure you don't want to be reminded of the First's history and power, but for those who haven't encountered it before I think its best that I explain exactly what this means" Dumbledore said. "The First has its called, is the source of evil it was the being that created it when the world began. Although unable to take corporal form the First has immense powers. If you were combine these with one of the powerful Dark Lords of our time-"

"You get a corporal, extremely powerful Voldemort" Paige finished the sentence.

"Yes" Dumbledore replied.

He looked through his moon shaped glasses as he began to read the prophecy. At first Harry wondered why Dumbledore didn't bring his pensive. Then he remembered that it wouldn't have been easy to take going through they portkey.

"_On the night where evil should typically rest, he shall commingle the blood of enemies:_

_The mortal who turned to dark and the witch who returned to the light_

_The child with the golden tresses and the child with the strawberry locks_

_The first defeat of the great three and the eldest of the living warren line_

_On the night where love is celebrated, he shall commingle the blood of friends:_

_The child given up because a mother's love and The child saved by a mother's love_

_  
The sayer that escaped death and the witch who almost saw it_

_The witch with the power to see and know and the mortal who sees and knows_

_when the night equals the day, he shall take of their power, and the darkness that was shall be called to fill him._

_The hope of the light - three friends of three friends of three friends - three minds, three hands, three hearts."_


	4. The who's who

Authors Notes: Sounds like most of you are on the right track with the prophecy. I have no intent on not giving the details, I just left them out of the last part 'cause it was too long with them in it.

Part 4- The who's who.

* * *

"My premmintions are never as detailed as _that_" Phoebe sighed in awe.

"Ahh, but at least you do remember them. This seer does not" Dumbledore assured Phoebe.

Dumbledore handed the parchment containing the prophecy to Giles to examine.

"So we're all involved in this prophecy. Our blood is required for this spell?" Dawn questioned, receiving a nod from Dumbledore. "It's always blood. Red stuff that's thicker than water, that makes you alive."

Xander couldn't help but wonder if Dawn was channelling Spike when she said that. It sounded similar to what he had said about the key's blood.

"Eldest of the living warren line is me" Piper handed Wyatt to Leo and began to pace. "My blood is going to be mixed with the first defeat of the great three…. Who the hell is that meant to be?"

"Maybe it's the first demon or warlock you vanquished?" Wesley suggested in his rational voice, the opposite of Piper's.

"How? Jermany's dead. We killed him. Twice!" Piper held up two fingers as she spoke frustrated that for this prophecy to occur her ex-lover would have to come back…again.

"People come back sometimes" Willow stated remembering when she raised Buffy.

She was sure someone as evil and powerful as Voldemort could do the same, somehow.

"The witch who returned to the light would be me. I went all-apoplectic at one stage, but I'm okay now I promise. The mortal who turned to dark could be…"

"Warren." Andrew flatly replied. He was now sitting on the stairs with a watcher diary. He didn't want to be left out of the action. "It's like this episode of Star Trek I –"

"Andrew, be quiet" Xander interrupted.

"Ron's part of it too. Who else could the golden tresses and strawberry locks children be but Draco and Ron" Hermoine noted with a slight groan.

"Malfory's part of this?" Harry was at first surprised, but then he realised something. "But Malfory's a bigger enemy of mine. Ever since I decided I'd never be friends with that git"

The Americans had no idea what Harry and Hermoine were talking about, but they assumed Draco Malfory was someone at Hogwarts and not some kind of hell beast.

"You have a greater friendship with the child given up because a mother's love than a greater hatred of Draco" Hermoine said in her matter-of-fact tone. "You're obviously the child saved by a mother's love Harry."

"That child would be me." Paige piped up. "My parents feared for what the Elders would do to my sisters and I if they knew I existed."

"But I don't even know you" Harry told her without thinking.

He was a little taken back by his harshness. He decided not to say anymore. Harry didn't want to have an outburst in a room full of strangers.

"That's why there is a few months before the first and second collecting the mixing of blood. Time must pass for events of the prophecy to occur" Dumbledore clarified as if he knew something they didn't.

"The mortal who sees and knows…" Dawn looked towards Xander remembering their conversation when Dawn had could have been slayer. "…it has to be Xander."

"They couldn't leave me out of it. I had to be picked on in some way or another. Lucky for me my blood is mixed with a friend's" Xander joked.

"I've got the power to see and know so that makes me you're friend Xander" Phoebe smiled at him. He smiled back.

"The slayer who escaped death could only be me. I don't see how any of the slayers we've got here have escaped death the way I have" Buffy said with a half proud and half mournful tone. "But I don't understand how a girl could almost see death"

"Hermoine" Harry stated causing everyone to turn to him once more. "Hermoine, you almost saw death when the Basilisk was at school. If you looked straight into its eyes you would have seen death, but you had the mirror so you almost saw it."

"Yeah, Harry's right" Ron added, feeling he had to say something.

"What about the last bit? The hope of the light and with the three of everything." Paige continued to work on the next part of the prophecy.

"The hope of light would refer to the fight against Voldemort" Giles explained as Ron jumped at the mention of the name.  
The others gave him confused looks, not knowing fear of a name. "I understand it now" Piper began, sitting down next to Leo holding Wyatt in her lap. "Three friends would refer to me and my sisters. Of three friends I assume would be you Buffy, Willow and Xander. Of the other three friends have to be Harry, Hermoine and Ron." 

"Three minds- Willow, Hermoine and Paige" Xander continued guessing that Hermoine was the brains of her group.

She had that atmosphere about her. Plus she was wearing the type of clothes Xander knew Willow wore back when she was sixteen.

"Three hands- Phoebe, Buffy and Harry" Paige added knowing these were the fighters of the groups.

"And the three hearts would be Ron, Piper and Xander" Harry finished.

"Considering this prophecy occurs over the year I insist that you spend the year at Hogwarts. Of course the decision is up to you" Dumbledore told the group.

Xander was the first to answer rather quickly.

"I don't know about these lovely ladies" Xander gestured to the Halliwells. "But I'm more of a 'run and hide' kind of guy. Maybe I'm missing something…apart from my eye…but wouldn't it make sense for all of us to just split up?"

"That I would like to believe Xander, but simple logic will not work in this case. With you all at Hogwarts you can learn more about our way of life and the spells to defend yourselves against the death eaters. There is so much power gathered in this room. United we stand-"

"Divided we fall" Buffy finished Dumbledore's sentence. "I completely agree. I'm only alive because of my friends. Literately, they're the ones who brought me back to life"

Paige smiled at Buffy. She felt exactly the same way. Her sisters were her friends. Without them she would be lost. Without them she probably would have turned back to alcohol by now. It was the search for her family that sobered her. Like Buffy, Paige was also up for a change in lifestyle for a while. Since Nate turned out to be married there was nothing keeping Paige in the States, besides her sisters, who would have to go too.

Harry on the other hand caught himself staring at Buffy. But only for a moment. He quickly turned his head to look at his own feet to make it appear as if he was in great thought about the prophecy. Harry was in thinking about Sirius. If Buffy could be brought back to life then was it possible that Sirius could too?

"So…when do we leave?" Paige asked eager to see the school.

* * *

Later that night Phoebe sat on her bed reading the book of shadows. After the experience with Dumbledore, Phoebe had decided to try and find any evidence of these other kinds of magic in her magical book. As she turned the pages Dumbledore became more and more correct. The three magic's rarely did have anything to do with each other. There was no mention of Willow's Wiccan magic, nor of any wand use. The book still referred to its magic as being Wiccan, which confused Phoebe slightly.

Phoebe had left her door open which Xander noticed as he strolled past it. He casually walked into the room to see what she was doing. Phoebe looked up at the young man and gasped.

"You have two eyes!"

"Yep" Xander smiled going cross-eyed. "Dumbledore worked his mojo before he left and now I can do this!"

Xander crossed his eyes, causing him to see two Phoebe's sitting on the bed. Feeling a little dizzy he uncrossed them and sat down next to her.

Both Leo and Paige had tried to heal Xander's eyes, but their attempts hadn't worked. Leo concluded it was because Xander's injury occurred some time ago. It was too late to heal it.

"Now you have depth cues and everything." Phoebe paused for a moment then added. "What are you going to do with the patch?"

"I can use it for Halloween, but I've been a pirate before. What else have patches? Or maybe I'll just burn it. Have a little patch bonfire party. We can have streamers and party poppers and everything. Just so long as no one points one at my eyes" Xander replied.

He glanced at the book of shadows before turning back to Phoebe. "Got any patch burning spells in there?"

"I don't think so. You may just have to use a normal lighter" Phoebe answered smiling.

* * *

Back in England, the three sixth year students sat in the backyard of Grimmulad place. There was another Order meeting so Mrs Weasley suggested they go outside and enjoy the warm nightly weather. Harry was happy to be outside of the house and away from Kreacher. With Sirius dead, Harry being Sirius's godson had gained control over the house elf. Unlike Dobby, Harry did not feel the desire to set Krecher free, especially after what happened last time he left the house. Hermoine still campaigned that they should be nicer to Krecher, but she reluctantly agreed with Harry about setting him free.

The backyard although was looking just as good as the backyard at the Weasley's Burrow. There were gnomes gathering throughout it, which were to be de-gnomed by the twins the next day. Percy had still not returned to the family. Ron and Ginny never mentioned his name but Fred let it slip to Harry that Percy was too embarrassed to return.

"I can't believe we actually meant the Vampire Slayer and the Charmed Ones" Hermoine sighed in awe.

"A vampire slayer" Harry corrected remembering what Dumbledore had told them afterwards. "She changed the rules remember. I don't see what the big deal is anyway. We'd never heard of any of them until now"

"You haven't heard anything about them because you too don't read enough. I've read small mentions of both the Charmed Ones and the Slayer. I think its amazing we've met such powerful people. And to think that there's other types of magic out there. Doesn't it just make you want to learn all about it?" Hermoine pondered.

"No" Ron and Harry said together.

"I wonder if they're any slayers awoken that go to our school" Ron slightly changed the subject.

"I witches can't be slayers Ron" Hermoine automatically answered as if she were a human textbook. "Slayers don't have any real magical powers. In the past they were just strong muggles who could become a slayer if the present one died."

"So if Buffy's died before does that mean there was another slayer around?" Harry questioned.

"I suppose so. I would really like to find out more about slayers and the charmed ones too. Maybe we can go to London soon and see if some of the bookshops in Diagon Alley have some books on them. Or maybe I can ask Mr. Giles if I can borrow some of his books on slayers and look through the Charmed ones spell book. Isn't it so exciting how much we're going to learn from them?" Hermione said.

"You-know-who wants to steal our blood to become even more powerful and she's excited about learning" Ron groaned.


	5. Hogwarts

Part 5- Hogwarts

A/N: Sorry this part took so long. I've had a lot of other things to do like University etc, plus I lost my interest in the story for a bit, but reading HBP has really made me want to finish this story. Though this part is pretty much Charmed and Buffy.

-----------------------------

* * *

"Paige where's that black sweater you borrowed?" Piper shouted from her room.

"In the wash" Paige called back from her room.

The sisters were back at home preparing now to spend a year to Hogwarts. Since Buffy, Dawn and Willow had only a few possessions they had volunteered to go with the Halliwells to aid their packing. Andrew (who had remained relatively quiet during Dumbledore's visit) had insisted on coming too, but Buffy was still deciding wether he should even come with them to England.

While Dawn was on Wyatt duty (something she was beginning to enjoy), Buffy and Willow helped Piper and Paige to pack their things. Phoebe had gone to her work to plead with Elise to make some sort of arrangement. There was no way Phoebe could have a year off, but Elise wasn't going to allow her to quit either. After some time the pair came to an agreement. While Phoebe was in England dealing with the "family emergency" she was to write her column using e-mail rather than post. It was also now to be monthly. Elise was not pleased with that particular part of the deal, but she did not want to loose the great 'ask Phoebe' column.

"Well that's it for the clothes" Piper announced after returning to her room with the sweater from the wash. "It doesn't get all that hot in England does it? Because I didn't really pack a lot of summer clothes"

"No" Willow answered sitting on Piper's bed. "I was only there for a couple of months, but I don't really remember there being a sun there"

"Good" Piper then squashed the lid of her suitcase upon all of the clothes. "I need to get a few things from the basement."

"I'll come help you" Willow offered as they exited Piper's room.

When the pair reached the basement, Piper had no hesitation to quickly walk down the stairs into the bottom room. However Willow had only gone a few steps when she stopped.

"Uhh…Piper?" Willow called as Piper began to search in a cardboard box. Piper turned to Willow confused as to why Willow hadn't come down the stairs.

"Why do I feel surge of power in here?" Willow curiously asked feeling a little nervous about it.

"Oh…" Piper realised that Willow being a Wiccan witch used the world around her for her powers. Of course she would be able to feel it. "It's the Nexus. Perhaps it best you don't come down. Phoebe being born in the house has a slighter greater pull towards evil because of the Nexus. I don't want to risk you"

"I understand" Willow smiled knowing Piper's intentions were not to offend her.

"Willow, are you sure about this? Going to Hogwarts with all that magic around. You won't be tempted to uh...become evil again?" Piper asked trying to protect Willow's feelings.

She had to ask it though. When they had been discussing their types of magic Willow had told the Charmed Ones what happened after Tara was murdered. They understood what it was like to loose someone and wanting to make the pain go away. Willow had continued to tell them of her time in England and how she was recovering from her 'episode'. It had made Piper a little wary about going to a magical school with an unstable witch, but she had chosen to remain quiet about it until now.

"I think that…I'm ready for this. I became a Godess when I performed the spell on the potentionals. Last year was the greatest test for me with magic" Willow explained. "And I passed"

"I'm sorry" Piper quickly said. "I just had to ask"

"It's okay. Xander already asked me the same thing. I know you are just concerned" Willow said as she sat down on the steps to wait until Piper was done.

Piper gave Willow a small smile and began looking around the basement. Soon after they arrived home Dumbledore had sent them an owl regrading their house. He somehow knew Piper would be worried about evil taking it over. It had happened before. Dumbledore had arranged for a magical couple to take care of the house until the Halliwells returned. Piper wasn't exactly happy with strangers staying in the house, but Dumbledore was trustworthy so she assumed his friends would be too. Plus Piper didn't have much of a choice.

----

* * *

When the time came to travel to England it was soon decided that orbing would be the best way to travel. It would save Dumbledore from having the trouble of connecting a fireplace to the floo network or organizing a portkey. It was a great distance for Paige to travel to so she had been practising by taking everyone's luggage separately. She then took her own family first before returning to the hotel to take the Sunnydale group.

In the end it turned out Buffy won the argument about Andrew accompanying the group to England. He was to continue with his training to become a watcher. She advised Faith and Wesley (who were to train him) to put him far out of his way as possible since Andrew had a habit of being a pest. He had already began his constant whining as soon as Buffy told him there was no point in taking him out shopping for his 'England fashions'.

The slayers naturally were all to remain behind too. There was no need for them to be at Hogwarts. If there were a fight against Voldemort the Scoobies would handle the physical battle. Faith had been voted as their new leader since Buffy would be leaving. Gunn had used a couple of Wolfram and Hart's tricks to keep Faith out of jail. Robin was also just out of hospital as Buffy left, choosing to stay with his new girlfriend in America. He was going to get a job in a nearby school to get out of having to train Andrew.

As for finding new Slayers, Angel had set up a division of Wolfram and Hart to aid Faith and Robin in rounding up slayers all over the world. The seers would find the slayers and either Faith or one of the other slayers would bring them to the states until they were trained enough to return home with their own watcher. Cho-Ann proved to be a great asset when the first Slayer the seers found was buried in the heart of China where there was little English speaking people.

So it was Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles and Dawn travelling to Hogwarts with the Halliwell sisters plus Leo and Wyatt. Wesley brought an owl from some contacts in New York to keep in close contact with Giles, as he wanted to be informed of everything that went on. Wesley had wanted to go to England, but his loyalties lay with Angel and didn't want to leave Wolfram and Hart without really giving it a go. Plus Fred was certainly remaining in the states and Wesley had no intention to let go of his feelings for her.

At first it was believed that Kennedy would also be part of the Hogwarts group, but it was when Willow was packing that Kennedy revealed that she preferred to remain behind. When they were saying their goodbyes in the foyer of the hotel Willow's mind recalled her conversation with Kennedy.

---

* * *

Kennedy entered the room to find Willow taking a few of her books out from the drawers. It had only been a short while since they arrived at the hotel, yet Willow was already packing her things. Not that she had much to pack. All of her things had been buried in Sunnydale. The books Willow had were spell books that Wesley had found for her at Wolfram and Hart. It was the last thing that Willow had to place into her small suitcase.

"You know what I'm going to miss?" Kennedy asked Willow as she sat on their bed.

"Playing follow the leader with the junior slayers?" Willow smiled, remembering how much Kennedy enjoyed her short amount of leadership.

"You're adorable little pout. Remember I told you that it was sexy on our first date" Kennedy said.

"Date? You tricked me into that!" Willow laughed. Then she realized what Kennedy meant by it. "Wait…y-you're not coming to Hogwarts?"

"No. You know I'm going to miss these freckles too" Kennedy said as she brushed Willow's hair out of her face.

"Why aren't you coming to England with us? Is it me? Have I done something wrong? Are we actually breaking up or are we going to do the long distance thing because I don't know if I could handle the long distance thing. I'm used to having the person there with me not thousands of miles away" Willow rambled.

"The magic deal was always your thing Willow. I'm a slayer. I belong here. Faith will need my help in rounding up the slayers" Kennedy explained.

"That's it? You're staying here because of Faith?" Willow backed away from her 'girlfriend' sounding a little jealous.

"When you put it like that it sounds like I'm ready to hop into bed with her" Kennedy snapped, angry with Willow's tone.

"I just…don't understand. I-I thought you'd be coming to Hogwarts with us. Dumbledore said that there's room for as many people as we wish."

"Willow I care for you deeply, I probably love you, but I can't run off to some magic school. Slaying is my life now. Its my passion" Kennedy tired to reason with Willow.

"You sound like Faith" Willow said softly.

Kennedy wasn't too keen on bringing up Faith yet again so she choose to remain silent. Willow sat down on the bed looking more dejected than Kennedy had ever seen her. A small tear slid down Willows cheek as she realized that her relationship was over. It wasn't the same sadness she felt when Oz left nor the anger she felt when Tara was murdered. It was simple grief for a dead relationship.

- -

* * *

"Wow" Buffy breathed. "This is SO much better than Dracula's castle"

The entire American group had finally arrived at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had told them they would be staying at the school until the term began. Grimmulad place was just too crowed for nine most guests. Orbing (unlike apparation) was not effected by the many charms and spells placed on Hogwarts as it was not their type of magic. Whoever placed the charms on the area hadn't bothered to deal with orbing, or didn't know about it, as it was a power reserved for whitelighters.

While orbing into Hogwarts was simple enough it soon became very tiring for Paige. Buffy was the last of the group to be orbed to England, which Paige was extremely grateful for. She had sat down on the nearest chair as soon as Buffy let go of her hand. Madam Pomfrey was on site already with a handful of chocolate she practically shoved into Paige's mouth. It was odd to have chocolate as the 'medicine', but Paige happily accepted it.

"Welcome to Hogwarts" Dumbledore greeted with Hargid by his side. "This is Hargid, keeper of the keys and grounds here"

"'ello" Hargid greeted fondly with his strong accent.

While the group was still getting over the fact that Hargid was part giant, Dumbledore started to speak.

"I have a proposition for you all…"


	6. A different start to the year

Part 6: A different start to the year 

A/N: It's been months since I last posted a part. Again I lost interest in fan fiction etc, plus I finally got myself a job and I've never found myself bored enough to turn back to my fiction again. However the fact that Charmed has gotten so bad this season has given me inspiration to continue my alternative season 7 (which has not yet been posted and I want to get the first few stories drafted before I release any parts of it) and hence this story as well.

So here you are. A long part. Enjoy!

Harry, Ron and Hermoine didn't see any of the others involved with the prophecy for the rest of the summer. They had although been informed of their safe arrival and Dawn, being their age and wanting to make new friends, kept in close contact with the three using Hogwarts owls.

Finally the time came for the students to return to Hogwarts. With only four students now attending Hogwarts from Grimmulad place Mrs Weasley was able to book a couple of muggle taxis, telling them to pick them up at the end of the street rather than the house itself. They had taken the English cabs once before to the train station and this time was no different. Owls began to go crazy; especially Pig, as well as some of the twin's fireworks (which were a present to Ginny) also went off. One went up the taxi drivers pants. At that point he had thought it was a rat and was extremely fearful when handling Ginny's things after that.

"Hogwarts will certainly be different this year," Hermoine said once she and Ron had returned from their prefect duties.

Harry, Neville and Luna had been the only three in the carriage until Ron and Hermoine returned. Ginny had stayed for a little while to catch up with Luna, but after a very strange conversation about Luna's holidays Ginny decided to go find Dean. Meanwhile Harry and Neville had been discussing their own holidays and their O.W.L results.

"The truth about Voldemort is finally out. Oh stop flinching Ron it's just a name. And I'm sure Malfoy won't be strutting around like he owns the school as much anymore. His father can't exactly do anything in Azkaban" Hermoine continued to state the obvious, but no one seemed to mind, it was nice to hear that their sixth year shouldn't be as terrible as their fifth.

Harry looked out the window. Hermoine was right this year was going to be different from the last. There were new friendships to form and prophecies to prevent. Plus there was there would be a new defence against the dark arts teacher. Which made Harry began to think about who it could be.

"I wonder who the new defence against the dark arts teacher will be" Ron said as if he read Harry's mind. "Do you think it will be one of the Charmed ones? Or maybe Willow will teach? Or Giles since he is a watcher which is sort of like a teacher"

"I don't know. They don't know our magic, but they do know a lot about defence" Hermoine answered, pulling out the next level spell book to read. "I guess we'll find out"

---

The teacher's table in the great hall looked quiet odd with so many people sitting at it. Harry quickly noted that all the Scoobies and the Halliwells were there except for two of them, Leo and Dawn. Dumbledore had explained that whitelighters had other charges to take care of, so Harry assumed that's where Leo was. Dawn's disappearance was a little more confusing to Harry until-

"Over here!" Dawn called to her new magical friends at the grifndoor table. She waited until they sat down until she spoke again. "Dumbledore said that I should take some classes to learn more about this wizarding world at the sixth year level even though I'm 18. He believes that I may have some sort of power. That weird hat thing sorted me a few hours ago. Less public humiliation since I figured a sixth year student being sorted wouldn't be a common event. It's so cool I ended up in Gryffindor. After all Buffy tired to send me away before the battle with The First and I drove the car back. No coward here."

Happily the three Gryffindor congratulated Dawn and introduced her to their friends. Before further explanations could be brought fourth, the sorting begun. After cheering on a new batch of brave Gryffindors, the feast began. Dawn was amazed at the amount and variety of food before her. Being a British school Dawn had expected 'Bangers and mash', but there were no mashed potatoes but rather large roasted ones instead. Once the plates were cleared the students looked to Dumbledore for his usual start-of-year speech.

"Good evening everyone." Dumbledore began.

He continued by explaining the rules to the first years and remind the others of them too. He also added that after last years Weasley twins departure and their new shop, Mr Filch would not be tolerating any kind of trouble. Ron and Ginny smiled proudly, knowing their brother's memory would be around Hogwarts for a long time. Dawn had told them in one of her letters that Filch grunted every time he walked past the section of the twins swamp.

"Now to get to what I expect you all to be most curious about. I'm sure you've eagerly awaited the arrival of a new defence against the dark arts teacher, and rather than one new face you are presented with seven. The truth has finally been realised. Voldemort-" many of the students and a few teachers flinched. "has in fact risen. Although many of his favourite death eaters have been captured.."

Ron and Harry's eyes darted to Malfory who was scowling at Dumbledore.

"…Voldemort is still out there and we need to strengthen our youths defences" Dumbledore continued. "So this year Hogwarts is adding something extra to its classes. These seven will be titled as assistant professors. Each has a different background to most of you so you will learn a great deal more about the world around you than you would from just the one professor. They will be appearing in different classes to assist you in them. Since I know most of you would like to settle in to your dorms I suppose I better introduce them all to you"

Dumbledore smiled to the students. His idea was brilliant. Besides Dawn, the rest were too old to be in any of the classes so he decided helping in classes would not only help them learn about the wizarding world, but also help the students learn more about other kinds of magic and defence.

McGonagall had also asked Dumbledore if he had considered inviting the Americans into the Order. Dumbledore admitted he had thought about it, but they would have enough to worry about during the year without commitments to the Order.

Starting the introductions Dumbledore gestured to the Halliwells on his left.

"Piper Halliwell, and her son Wyatt"

Piper gave a small wave and a small smile. She was a little nervous about being at a table above all these students, but at least she didn't have to speak. Wyatt wasn't upset at all by all the people.

"On her right is Paige Halliwell. Next is the third Professor Halliwell, Phoebe. These of course are the Charmed ones."

Dumbledore spoke with proud as the students looked up at the three sisters with confused looks on their faces. Most had not heard of them before and had no idea why Dumbledore hadn't elaborated on it.

"Moving on to my right is Rupert Giles, who is a watcher to Miss Summers. The flaming redhead is not in fact a relative of the infamous Weasley's but Willow Rosenburg. The young man next to her is Xander Harris. And finally we reach Buffy Summers. The original vampire slayer who I'm sure you've heard of in you're dense against the dark arts classes.

Now the question most of you are probably thinking is who is the new defence against the dark arts teacher? But in fact is it not 'who is' but it is 'who are' the new defence against the dark arts teachers. As I said before there are new threats to our world and we need to be prepared. Therefore the new defence against the dark arts teachers are the teacher assistants I have just introduced. They will teach you two at a time all they know about defence. After last years 'one opinion' defence against the dark arts classes I'm sure you can do with a few fresh views."

The Americans had been a little nervous when Dumbledore suggested they teach their own class. Willow for one was worried about how it might affect things like exams. Dumbledore had already explained to the group what OWLs and NEWTs were. However with an outline from the ministry examiners, the group could adequately prepare the fifth and seventh years for their externally marked exams.

- -

For the first time since his first lesson, Harry actually looked forward to potions with Snape. (McGongall had done something to allow Harry to participate in Snape's class). Piper had told Harry in passing that she would be attending the first sixth year potions lesson of the year. Harry was delighted by this as it meant that he's marks weren't going to be completely up to the slimly git.

Even the dungeons felt warmer when the Slytherins and the Gryffindors entered. Harry had only met Piper in that brief meeting and she was a lot older than him, but he felt comfortable with her. Harry was drawn to all the Americans for some reason. He felt that they understood him even though he barley spoke to any of them besides Dawn. It was odd, but Harry knew the feeling well and it was certainly real.

Malfoy glared at Harry as they passed each other going through the doorway to their spots. It didn't faze Harry at all. It wasn't his father in the wizard prison. Snape appeared only slightly happier than Malfoy. Harry knew he could not be pleased by a group of untrained teachers would be teaching the class he wanted. Yet Snape and Piper were in a great discussion as the class entered.

"Today we will be learning the healing potion from my assistant, Professor Halliwell" Snape began in his natural cold tone.

He never bothered to greet his students or congratulate his students on entering N.E.W.Ts potions. Not even on the first class on the year.

"Uhh…maybe we should just go with Professor Piper. It'll get a little confusing having 'professor Halliwell' for three teachers" Piper added smiling nervously.

She had never taught anyone before and wasn't all that keen on being up the front of the class. Piper always sat at the back in high school and never thought much about the class from her teacher's perspective. Piper was also a little worried about leaving Wyatt with Madam Pomfrey since Leo had charges to take of and everyone else was in class. The nurse had taken care of Wyatt a couple of times during the summer break, but it was only when Piper and Leo went for a short walk, not for an entire day.

"Professor _Piper_ and I will be grading you all at N.E.W.T level. It will be difficult as it is amazing of how some of you ended up in my class" Snape's eyes flashed at Harry.

Harry just glared back. McGongall had informed Harry that he deserved all of his O.W.L marks and they were not given to him because of the fact 'he was the boy who lived'. It was something Harry had been questioning since he received his potions grade. She had also somehow convinced Snape to allow Harry into his class. Harry knew no details about it, but he suspected that there had been a deal made as Malfoy was had been entered in transfiguration after classes had begun.

"Now this is a potion that you won't find in your textbooks. In fact it's from my book" Piper motioned to the table where the recently grown book of shadows lay open. "My powers may not require wands like yours, but the potions are basically the same except ours use more common ingredients brought from muggle stores. If you have of this potion it will save you a trip to Madam Pomfrey and I'm sure she'll be grateful that the sixth years know this. I have heard of the many dangerous things at Hogwarts, believe me this will come in handy."

Piper smiled at the class knowing she had concealed information. Her, Paige and Leo had created the potion as a substitute for a whitelighters healing powers. It has taken them a while, but it was worth it even if it meant giving themselves a few cuts in the process. All the potions in the book of shadows were mostly vanquishing potions, so Piper wanted to create the healing potion in order to show Snape she could handle taking the potions class. Hargid had foretold her about his attitude so Piper wanted to be on his good side the beginning. She enjoyed making potions and felt that teaching it to others would come more naturally to her than other subjects like charms.

As they began to brew the potion Piper watched Harry and Hermoine. Ron had not made it into Snape's potions class, at first he was not upset by it until Hermoine pointed out that he needed it to become and Auror. Ron remained miserable for about a day or so, but Harry and Hermione reminded him that there were plenty of other options for him.

Piper smiled at the students, not knowing exactly what to say to them. It was the first time Piper had gotten a real chance to talk to them since their meeting. However words had not failed Hermoine.

"Professor Piper, what is in your book? You say it has information that you cannot find in textbooks. I find some textbooks I've read insufficient." Hermoine asked not truly knowing what the book was.

Piper couldn't help but to give a small laugh at the innocent curious student.

"Miss Granger, the book is called the Book of Shadows" Piper decided to use a formal tone when in class. "It's been in my family for generations. Ever since my ancestor from the 1600's, Melinda Warren started writing in it"

"She's the one who created the um…prophecy of the Charmed Ones?" Harry asked unsure of the correct term to use.

Hermoine looked at Harry with pride. She had searched for information on the Halliwells as well as the Slayer and retold it to Harry and Ron. Something finally had sunken into Harry's brain from Hermonie's

"10 points to Gryffindor." Piper whispered as Snape checked Malfoy's cauldron. Then she continued at normal tone. "The B.O.S as we call it for short, is a collection of spells, potions and information on various magical things written by those in the Warren line."

"Wow. I should start my own Book of Shadows" Hermoine was impressed.

"I think that would be a great idea. It's handy to have a list of all the potions and charms you've learnt in class," Piper answered. She was beginning to see why Professor McGongall had spoken so highly of Hermoine.

- - -

It had been a week since the group had arrived at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had found them a place for all the Americans to share their own common room. It was also to be used as a place to formulate plans and ideas on how to stop Voldemort gaining the power of the first evil. Harry, Ron and Hermoine were also invited to join in the common room chatter every night. Dawn had decided to stay in the same dorm with Buffy so she was also often split between her own common room and the Gryffindors. At first it was a weird experience spending their nights with the professors, but it became less tense when the teenagers learned that the new professors were very similar to themselves. Besides Giles and Leo, they weren't _that_ much older than the students (as compared to their other professors). Piper was over ten years older than them, but they got along fine with her. The common room soon became very connivent, as the professors could help the students with the homework set.

It was late in the week when the common room was full for the first time. Usually there would be a few people missing each night doing various things such as patrolling the hallways (on Dumbledore's advise) learning about astrology or simply taking time to explore the castle. However on this night no one seemed to have much to do, so they all gathered in the common room and just chatted among each other.

"She's really odd. One of the students told me that no one has died at Hogwarts for fifty years, yet Trelawney continues to predict a death every year" Phoebe stated.

"She's a fraud" Hermoine added to Phoebe comments.

"Not always" Harry said quietly. "So far Trelawney's made three real predictions"

Quickly, realising she had upset Harry Hermoine apologized. Harry accepted it, but remained quiet while the others continued to talk. Dawn looked at Harry with sympathy. Her situation had been different to Harry's yet she knew what it meant to be different.

"Muggle studies is certainly interesting" Xander changed the subject.

He had decided to see what it was all about seeing as he was a muggle. Plus the professor had asked him to come since he was a pure muggle.

"These witches and wizards are really naive about the real world. Took me forever to try and explain just what a telephone was. For the first five minutes they were pronouncing it fely-tone"

Harry cracked a small smile at Ron remembering when he had shouted at Vernon on the phone. Ron went a little red remembering the embarrassment.

"Ahh…I love the fely-tone" Buffy teased with a large grin on her face.

Xander picked up a cushion and attempted to throw it as Buffy, but it had gone completely off course and headed in Paige's direction. However she had her wand in her hand and used the banishing charm to send it back. Hitting Xander right between the eyes.

Dumbledore had told the witches amongst the group that the magic's could cross over with each other, if the person had a great deal of power. So naturally the Charmed ones and Willow had brought wands. Dawn too when Dumbledore had told her that the powers of the key could be harnessed through a wand.

"Go Paige" Willow cheered impressed with the charm performed.

"Thanks" Paige was proud of herself. "I guess I did finally learn something other than swish and flick"

Harry couldn't help but too smile at Paige. He was himself remembering when they had learned the swish and flick back in the first year and what it had lead to. Ron caught his eye and grinned, remembering the incident with the troll as well. Harry's mood was slowly lightening from the mention of the prophecies before.

"I envy you." Buffy suddenly stated. "The closest thing I've got to magic is dying a mystical death and that was not fun"

"Yeah the slayer strength isn't really a power or anything" Xander sarcastically replied with a dopey smile.

Buffy, Xander and Giles had all also brought wands from Diagon alley. They had all cast Wiccan spells before even if the magic wasn't all that strong in them. Giles had lost most of his power when Willow had stolen it from him during her rage. With practice all three 'muggles' could built up power through Wiccan magic, which would eventually, be able to cross with wand magic. However Dumbledore did tell them that this would take a lot of time, effort and extra dose of practice.

- -

It had been calculated that the blood of enemies would be mixed on Halloween. Dawn had remembered the time when she was out with a vampire on the day evil should normally rest. So at the beginning of October the Charmed Ones and the Scooby gang decided to begin their own private defence lessons. Hermoine had suggested that they'd need some and of course Harry was to teach.

At first it was a little odd having a sixteen-year-old boy teach them defence skills, but once they got the hang of it was just normal. Harry would handle magical defence while Buffy and Giles taught physical defence. Xander aided them with this as the role of the attacker. Paige would then immediately heal his wounds, which meant Buffy didn't have to be soft on him at all.

The defence classes seemed to be going well. Everyone had been making progress. Harry felt he was back in his DA class and was proud of all of them. Buffy also had a familiar feeling. It was much like when she was training the potential slayers.

Everything seemed to be working out fine at Hogwarts, besides the usual hiccups. Filch was on the warpath as normal. He was extremely bitter when Umbridge left. She was the only one who he believed truly ran Hogwarts the way it should be run. Malfoy was his natural trouble causing self, even if his father was in prison. Harry, Ron and Malfoy were constantly giving each other dirty looks in the halls and Malfoy attempted to jinx them a few times.

Then a week before Halloween it happened.


	7. Bring back black

Part 7- Bring back Black

Phoebe had decided to learn more about Potions in Snape's class one afternoon. Snape had left instructions of how to construct the lesson's potion on the blackboard while he and Phoebe patrolled the room. As Phoebe brushed past Draco she was thrust into a premmintion.

_The room was in shadows and there were many strange, sinister appearing objects placed in it. It was part of someone's house. Two figures were standing amongst the objects talking. One Phoebe knew as Draco Malfoy, the other was taller and much older, Draco's father. He spoke to his son about himself and other death eaters being free from Azkaban and it was time for Draco to join them. But first the son had to prove himself by helping the death eaters, giving his blood. Only then would he be accepted into the league._

Phoebe gasped as her glimpse of the past ended. She could always tell wether a premmintion was past or future. It had to be at least a few days old now. This meant that the Daily prophet was banned from reporting the escape. Or worse…no one knew about it.

- --

The group sat in the common room with gloomy looks on their faces. It had been a few hours since Phoebe's premmintion and a lot had happened. They just sat in the room not talking very much. If anyone wondered in they would have thought they were either incredibly bored (something not possible at Hogwarts) or that someone had died.

Phoebe had immediately whispered to Snape what she had seen. Dumbledore had told the Americans about the Order of the Phoenix, which they were honorary members of, so Phoebe had known Snape was a member. She could trust him that he would do something with the information rather than panic like some of the other professors may have.

Snape had acted just as fast as Phoebe had. The class only had a few minutes remaining so once Snape collected all the potions he swiftly left the room leaving Phoebe to clean up. The behavior was a little suspicious to Harry and Hermoine, but Malfoy and the rest of the class didn't seem to notice it.

After class Phoebe proceeded to tell the rest of those in the prophecy what she had seen. The message passed quickly in between them and surprisingly any eavesdropping students did not catch them out. After telling Buffy and Paige who were in the D.A.D.A classroom, Phoebe headed to Dumbledore's office to find out what was happening. She assumed that Snape headed straight there to tell Dumbledore what Phoebe had seen.

Phoebe's assumptions were correct as Dumbledore was expecting her. He had presumed that Malfoy would be willing to give his blood, as his father was a very controlling man. Dumbledore explained that even if Malfoy didn't agree his father would take it from him anyway. The fact that Lucius Malfoy was out of Azkaban was no shock for the Hogwarts Headmaster. He knew the ministry would not act fast enough to replace guards at the prison, so the escape was inevitable. Dumbledore told Phoebe he had been expecting this from the day Voldemorts death eaters had been thrown into Azkaban. He assured her that the Order had already begun to devise a plan and Fawkes was currently informing the ministry. Phoebe's premmintion had simply confirmed what Dumbledore himself had predicted.

There was nothing else they could do at the time. This was why the group sat in the common room depressed. Phoebe had told the group at the meeting before dinner that the Order was on it. They just had to be prepared on Halloween the Death Eaters would enter Hogwarts to collect the blood. The group was still unsure of how the death eaters planned to get in because the perimeters were carefully watched, but with some of Voldemorts most cunning death eaters free they were sure that they would find a way to get into the castle.

It was some time after dinner and the group had again gathered in the common room. Hermoine was the only one in the group doing anything. She was determined to get through the questions she had been set for Ancient Runes that night. Giles was researching something in one of the watcher diaries, searching for clues of slayers coming in contact with the wizard world, but he wasn't really concentrating.

The escape was just the start of it and they knew it.

That night as he while he was asleep Harry endured another nightmare. It was one that had been occurring for some time. Sirius's death played in Harry's mind just as Cedric's did over and over. The only difference was that the nightmares of Cedric had slowly faded away once Harry was with his friends again. The Sirius nightmares had remained with Harry since his godfather's death. They haunted him constantly.

When Harry awoke the next morning he found himself at the other end of the bed. It wasn't unusual for this to occur as during the nightmare Harry moved around a lot. His dorm mates had worried about him in beginning but it turned out there was really nothing they could do, except express their empathy for Harry. Ron explained that Harry did not want to talk about it and it was never spoken of again around Harry.

Harry was sick of these nightmares. He was sick of grieving for Sirius. It was time for him to do something about it. Harry quickly got out of bed and quickly got dressed. He then headed to the American's common room with only one thing on his mind.

"I want to know how to bring Sirius back" Harry stated once he entered the common room from the portrait it could be found behind.

Everyone except Dawn, who was still asleep, was in the common room by the unlit fire. Piper was brushing Wyatt's hair while Leo (who had been gone all Friday) was keeping him entertained by rolling a ball back and forwards. Buffy, Willow, Paige, Phoebe and Xander were all on the various couches eating the toast someone had gotten from the breakfast table. Giles sat at one of four desks in the room correcting half of the sixth year's herbology essays. Professor Sprout was marking the rest.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak, but it was Giles who interrupted.

"You can't. Not with our magic's. People come back wrong." Giles noticed Harry was about to say something so he continued before Harry could get a word out. "Buffy is fine now, but she was taken from Heaven. It wasn't a pleasant experience for her. It took a lot of time for Buffy to adjust to the world again. There are also greater consequences when you disrupt the natural order. Brining Buffy back was the reason the First was given and opportunity to eliminate the entire line of Slayers. You're godfather seems like a man who would be in the place Buffy was, I don't think you'd want him to be put through that or allow him to be the cause of something horrific"

Harry did not the sound of that answer at all. He didn't care if Sirius was in heaven. He didn't care if it somehow created another near apocalypse. Harry just wanted him back.

"But Sirius doesn't want to be in heaven. He doesn't want to be dead" Harry stated with forced calmness in his voice.

"I didn't want to die either Harry, but once I was gone I didn't really want to come back" Buffy explained.

"But you did. You're friends brought you back because they needed you. I need Sirius so why won't they do the same for me?" Harry argued.

Hearing Harry's voice Dawn had made her way down the stairs to the common room. She looked at Harry knowing exactly how he felt. She had been through the exact same thing with her mother. Dawn had even insisted that Spike help her bring her mother back. Dawn would have done anything to have her mother alive again, even now. But she knew that wasn't possible.

"I know how you feel Harry. But-"

"You don't. You don't know anything about me. I've known you for only a few months" Harry had stopped trying to be calm. His anger was rising. "You didn't see the only thing you've had that acted like a parent and brother towards you die. YOU DIDN'T CAUSE SIRIUS TO DIE, I DID!"

"Don't talk to her like that" Buffy snapped at the young boy.

Dumbledore may have been the type to allow Harry to yell at him, but Buffy was not going to allow Harry to speak to her sister in that way.

Harry ignored Buffy's comments and looked to Piper who was now standing next to Buffy listening and watching Harry's outburst. She knew he was now looking at her for answers.

"I can't do anything Harry. The Elders, Leo's bosses, control this sort of thing. They won't let you to bring Sirius back. You have to accept that Sirius is gone. Once Death takes a person that's it." Piper answered, calmly and rationally.

She surprised that she could talk about it so easily since she had experienced a similar feeling when Prue died.

"They won't allow me to bring him back?" Harry questioned furiously. "What I have to have some stupid permission slip or something? Because the only person who would sign my permission slip is the person who died! Don't tell me you can't bring Sirius back. You're the Charmed Ones! You're meant to be the most powerful witches of your magic and you can't bring beck someone who fought on the good side?"

"We can't" Phoebe repeated what everyone else had been telling Harry. "Death isn't like monopoly. There's no get out of jail free card"

"LIAR" Harry spat. His rage had reached its highest level. "You can find a way. Turn back time or something. JUST BRING SIRIUS BACK!"

"We can't. You know this Harry." This time it was Willow who pleaded with Harry to understand.

Harry knew he was defeated. He knew they weren't going to bring Sirius back. He believed he hated them for it. Just like he thought he hated Dumbledore a few months ago. In Harry's unconscious mind he knew that Sirius couldn't come back. He knew that he was just clinging to anything he could. He knew that if the Americans could help him they would. But Harry's mind had blocked that out. It had blocked all reasoning.

With nothing more to say Harry left the room, smashing a vase on a small table as he left. There was nothing really in smashing the vase, he just felt like getting some revenge.

"I'm going to go find him" Paige said getting up from the couch. "I have a feeling I'll be able to help"

- - -

It didn't very long for Paige to find Harry. With her whitelighter senses and the fact that Paige and Harry shared a connection according to the prophecy, Paige could easily predict where he'd be. She found him sitting on some rocks, which overlooked the large lake.

Paige sat down next to Harry, and like him just stared ahead. The lake looked dark and dangerous, yet beautiful with all its mystery about what was in it. Quickly Paige came out of the trance and spoke to the young wizard.

"Did you know that a year ago Phoebe lost her baby?" Paige asked, but she didn't wait for answer. "Well the baby was kind of evil since its father was the source of all evil, but after the Seer stole Phoebe's baby and we vanquished her, Phoebe was left to grieve for her unborn baby. That's when Piper told me something very important"

Paige paused for a moment turning to face Harry now. He broke his stare and also turned to her. His face was stained with a few tears.

"Evil exists for one reason Harry. To spread loss. Your may have lost Sirius, but be careful not to loss you're friends."

"I just…" Harry began slowly. "..Don't know what I'm meant to be doing. I know I'm meant to be attending school and doing normal 16 year old stuff but…"

"Every other sixth year student in Hogwarts has someone they can call their parent were as you have no one anymore." Paige finished the sentence. "Believe me I know the drill. I was still at high school when I lost my foster parents. It was tough, but I pulled through and even ended up as a social worker. I also didn't get to meet my sister Prue before she died. While I was still dealing with becoming a witch I did begin to cry unfair, but I dealt with it."

"You have a lot of death in your life don't you?" Harry questioned feeling pity towards the youngest charmed one.

She reminded him of his conversation with Luna as she searched for her things before the feast. That conversation had lifted him a little and this one was having the same effect.

"Part of being a Charmed one." She answered, shrugging it off a little. "You have to learn not to bury yourself in grief"

There was silence for some time as they both stared into the horizon until Harry announced he wanted to go back to the castle. Paige happily agreed and escorted him back.


	8. In the Forest

_Checked: 5/3/06_

_Part 8- In the Forest_

_Friday, October 31st,_

_Breakfast_

_9.00- Double potions_

_Morning Tea_

_11.00- Care of magical creatures_

_12.00- Charms_

_Lunch_

_2.00- Double Defense against the Dark Arts_

_4.00- Transfiguration_

_Halloween Feast_

_Stop Voldemort from getting blood from Piper, Willow and Ron_

This was Harry's schedule for Halloween. He had written it down in Hermonie's homework diary in Charms as a joke. After his talk with Paige, Harry was becoming more relaxed and less withdrawn than he had been for the past few months. Harry even spoke a little to Ron and Hermoine about Sirius's death. "I doubt if there's a battle they'll let you be a part of it" Hermoine told Harry as they walked out to Hargid's hut for 'Care of magical creatures'. Dawn had finished lunch early and was already down at the hut talking with Hargid. Although Dawn was a special case, she wanted to also learn about the creatures that her fellow classmates had learned about over the past two years. She had been seeing many of her professors outside of class in order to receive extra work to catch up. 

Ron and Harry looked at Hermoine with open mouths while she was talking.

"Who's been training them to fight the Death eaters?" Harry asked the rhetorical question. "I've fought Death Eaters before, they haven't"

"That doesn't mean they're going to let you fight" Hermoine argued. "They have more experience. And don't start with how many times you've 'saved the day' because I know them already. I was there remember. I just don't think they're going to let four students fight Death Eaters."

-

"I suggest that if a battle erupts that we attempt to keep Harry, Ron and Hermoine away from it." Giles stated after that night.

"Dawn too" Buffy added. "I know she proved herself last time and was pissed when I tired to send her away, but if I have the choice I don't want her in the fight"

"She can look after Wyatt." Piper suggested. "That way I don't have to worry about him that night battle or no battle. Leo's not guaranteed to be around, but if he knows what's good for him he better be"

Halloween was only three days away now. Every chance they got the group were learning more about defense and creating new battle plans. The Order had discovered that Voldemorts prized Death Eaters were to be sent to Hogwarts with the important mission. It was something they had expected. Moody had explained over the floo network that Voldemort had a lot riding on the prophecy coming true so therefore only his best followers would do. Plus a lot of them wanted revenge for what happened at the end of the last school year.

They hadn't been able to find out any information on Warren or Jeremy, but Willow concluded that Voldemort would have brought them back, even if they were completely wrong, and simply killed them once he had their blood. An untrained mudblood was no use to him. As for a warlock, Voldemort had enough loyal Death Eaters. He didn't an independent warlock.

The only problem they had was that Piper wasn't allowed to blow the Death Eaters up. It wasn't the fact that Piper could be considered a murderer in the wizarding world (although she would plead self defence) but Dumbledore had requested that if possible they capture the Death Eaters. They would be useful to exact information from. Plus Dumbledore wasn't very favourable on killing other wizards. Demons, vampires and other beings that had human appearances however were a different matter.

- -

That night Buffy had to break the news to Dawn about the battle. Everyone had cleared out of the common room to give the Summers from privacy. Harry, Ron and Hermoine were working in the library that night, as they needed books for research for their homework assignments.

"Do you really think I'm going to lay down and not fight?" Dawn asked with her eyebrows raised and her arms folded. "I fought the Ubervamps in May"

"This is different Dawn. It's a different type of battle. It's magical not-"

"I'm better at magic than you. I can summon something about a mile away. You can only summon things a few feet away"

"I make up for it with physical strength"

"You said this battle was magical not physical"

"No I didn't. You cut me off!"

"You were going to say it!"

"Fine. You're still not being part of the battle. Neither is Harry or Ron or Hermoine or any Hogwarts students. You'll be in the common room watching Wyatt for Piper and Leo"

"What? I'm the baby-sitter now?"

"You should be happy. A few years ago you complained about being too old to be baby-sat. Now the roles have reversed."

"There are plenty of others to watch Wyatt. Lavender practically wants to take him home, let her do it!"

"Dawn we specially want you to do. Please just do as your asked for once." Buffy was no longer arguing with Dawn. She was pleading with the teenager to give in.

"Do what I'm asked?" Dawn continued to be stubborn. "What do you think I am a crazed rebel-"

"Forgetting that Halloween with the vampire so soon?"

"It was one vampire! You've been with two!"

"Don't start on that Dawn. You're going to baby-sit."

Upstairs in one of the dorms Willow and Paige were sitting on Paige's bed talking when they heard the squabble downstairs.

"Are they always like this?" Paige asked.

"They can be" Willow replied. "You know how opposites attract? Well Dawn was made from Buffy's blood, so they're so much alike. Which means they fight…often. But they're also very close too."

"Sounds like all sister relationships are the same" Paige said.

The next thing they heard was Dawn storm out of the room and Buffy coming up the stairs.

"Well I think that went well" Buffy said joining the two on the bed. "At least there was no shin kicking this time"

- - -

Dawn strolled close to the forbidden forest slowly. She was in no mood to head back to the castle any time soon after her fight with Buffy. Dawn had thought about heading to the Gryffindor common room, but something had drawn her to the forest instead.

Dawn couldn't believe that after what happened in Sunnydale Buffy was going to try and get her out of the battle again. Dawn thought she had proven herself to Buffy a number of times that she was a fighter.

IBaby-sitter/IDawn thought to herself as her feet scrapped along in the dirt. IThere's plenty of others to watch Wyatt. Buffy was just using it as an excuse/I

There was a crunch that came from inside the forest. Living on the Hellmouth had made Dawn edgy as she jumped at the noise. Harry had told her many things lived in the forest so the sound of a twig breaking wasn't anything to be alarmed about.

And then she saw it.

"Turok Han…in…forest" Dawn told the first person she ran into. She was out of breath from running. Luckily the person happened to be Willow who knew what Dawn meant.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Positive."

"How? I thought Spike killed them all." Willow was just as surprised as Dawn had at first been.

"What about the Cleveland Hellmouth? Maybe that got opened. Or maybe there's one in Europe that got opened. I bet Voldemort did it" Dawn spoke quickly, although she was pleased with her rational thinking.

"Well I'm not sure if all the Hellmouths contain Uber-vamps. C'mon we better tell the others about this." Willow said as her and Dawn headed further into the castle.

The whole group was gathered in front of the fire when Dawn and Willow entered. Giles was in the large armchair reading 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts'. Piper, grateful Leo had some time off, was cuddled on the couch with her family. Xander was looking at a bunch of moving photos of Qudditch players with Harry and Ron. Hermoine on the other hand was working on her Charms project with Paige and Buffy. They had finished researching and she was now writing it up. Phoebe was practicing Lumos with her wand in order to get a brighter light from it.

"I saw a Turok-Han in the forest" Dawn announced to the room.

"A what?" Phoebe asked as she put her wand, which had no more light, down.

"An Uber-vampire. They're an ancient form, a different race and very hard to kill. They were also all meant to be killed by Spike. Are you sure Dawn? You're not just making this up as some crazy way to get you in the battle?" Buffy was playing the skeptic, although she knew Dawn was unlikely to lie about something this serious.

"I'm not making this up. I saw one run past a few trees in the forest!" Dawn answered.

"It is plausible for her to see one" Giles announced. "Sunnydale and Cleveland aren't the only places with Hellmouths. They are just the two most active. There has been evidence leading to a Hellmouth in Northern Wales."

"Are you telling me that there's Hellmouths all over the world?" Buffy asked.

"Quiet possibly" Giles replied.

Buffy closed her eyes for a moment and tried to control her frustrated anger. She had just managed to close one Hellmouth for good only to discover there were more out there.

- -

Hargid arrived from the Forbidden Forest with about ten minutes before morning classes were to begin. He had volunteered to go into the forest to investigate how many Uber-vamps were exactly in the forest. Luckily Hargid managed to escape the wrath of Bane.

"There'd be 'bout ten of 'em vamps 'n there" Hargid told Buffy and Piper who patiently waited his return.

When they told Hargid they wanted to go into the forest he refused to let the pair go no matter how much power they had. If they went in alone it would be likely for them to get lost. With Hargid as a guide they would probably be in more danger as the centaurs would not be happy with two fully-grown human strangers in their forest.

"Only ten?" The numbers surprised Buffy. She had expected hundreds if not thousands.

"Yeh. Tha's what teh centaurs were saying. After I told 'em that there was a Slayer an' the Charmed Ones 'ere" Hargid explained. "Vamps don't like Centaur blood so Lysa, that's the 'ead female, got a good look at teh cave teh vamps are in an' she only saw ten"

"Do they know why they're in the forest? Are they under Voldemorts control?" Piper questioned, while Hargid jumped back at the mention of the dark lord's name.

"Lysa says she didn't know. Bane told 'em once to get out. He's like that ya know. Don't like other creatures in teh forest" Hargid explained. "Vamps don't really like teh forest. Nothin' to feed on in there. They'd have to be under You-Know-Who's-orders"

"I get to blow up something at least" Piper was unusually positive about the news.

The truth was she was feeling a little scared. While Piper had fought various demons, vampires had not been on that list. News of the most powerful vampires that a Slayer had ever faced was not good.

- - - - - - -

Piper was right. She did get to blow up something. A vampire attempted to jump Xander from behind while he cursed a masked Death eater.

"Thanks" Xander called as the vampire turned to dust.

The battle had begun.


	9. The night evil normally rests

Part 9: The night evil normally rests

A/N: I've decided to do a trick I've seen before done in Alias. Basically they open the episode at a certain point then back track until that point. Just thought I better tell you my plans in case anyone is confused.

- -

It had started not long after the students were all meant to be in their common rooms. Naturally not all of them were.

Dawn and Hermoine had concocted an invisibility potion similar to the one Paige had used in an attempt to vanquish Cole. Harry and Ron refused to drink another foul tasting potion after Hermoine had nearly brought it up over Moaning Myrtle's favourite toilet so the boys squished under Harry's invisibility cloak.

Dawn didn't have to do any convincing to get them to come. Ron wasn't about to wait and see if his blood was going to be taken. Harry was insulted when Dawn told him what happened with Buffy. Paige spoke to Harry, Hermoine and Ron after class that they also would not be in the battle at all. After they had walked out of the classroom Hermoine smirked and announced that she knew this was going to happen. However it didn't stop her joining them when Harry suggested using the invisibility cloak. The plan was to remain unseen and wait until something happened. If a battle did erupt, like it was predicted then the students would throw themselves into it and there would be nothing the others could do.

It was extremely reckless and similar to the incident at the ministry last year, but Harry had pointed out to Hermoine that they were in Hogwarts. If something was to happen they were in possibly the safest place they knew.

They had to lie to Ginny about where they were as she was up doing homework when they wanted to leave. The group pretended to be going down to the kitchens for a late night snack. She didn't believe them, but she didn't bother to push any further.

They had positioned themselves in the Hall, which the Hogwarts trio often took to sneak down to Hagrid's hut. At one point they had almost been discovered when Dawn's gold chain became visible while Peeves floated past. Luck was on their side. The ghost was still laughing about something he had done to Mrs. Norris and didn't notice. Dawn quickly gulped some more of her potion and became completely undetectable once more.

Ten minutes after the halls were meant to be student-free, the Scoobies and the Charmed ones headed down the hall. The Order had offered to be there with them as they had fought the Death Eaters before, but the group had agreed to do this on their own. Buffy explained that she had already brought too many people than she wanted into her many battles she didn't want any more when she didn't need them.

Leo was also not there. Piper was not at all happy when Leo informed her that he was stuck taking care of a handful of desperate new whitelighters. Piper was forced to understand that Leo's job involved him being away, even at some of the more important times. The Elders had felt that the Charmed Ones had enough protection at Hogwarts and had given Leo other duties. Piper still saw it as a conspiracy.

Buffy instantly stopped when she reached the spot Dawn was standing.

"Piper, you did give Wyatt to Dawn to look after?" Buffy asked.

The question was a little sudden and odd considering the group was awaiting a battle between vampires and death eaters. Piper who was standing next to Buffy armed with various potion bottles turned and answered the original Slayer.

"Yes. She was going to stay in the Gryffindor common room with some of the sixth year girls so she could work on her catch up homework with them around to help. Dawn said that she was happy to watch Wyatt while she worked. Why?" Piper replied.

"I hope you trust those sixth years because Dawn is here." Buffy's became angry as she clutched the handle of the scythe a little tighter.

"Sorry Buffy I don't see her" Xander began looking everywhere including the corners of a couple of sleeping portraits.

Paige closed her eyes and concentrated on Dawn. She knew Dawn wasn't a charge or related to her, but Paige wanted to see if she could track Dawn the way Buffy somehow did. Her whitelighter powers and senses were growing faster since she came to Hogwarts because all the magic in the atmosphere. But it wasn't a magical power that revealed Dawn was there. There was a small female gasp when Giles stepped forward next to Buffy.

He had trodden on Dawn's foot.

"If Dawn's out here then she's also waiting for something to happen. She wouldn't be out here alone if there was going to be Death Eaters and Uber-vamps. Dawn's not THAT stupid. I'm betting Harry, Ron and Hermoine are here too." Buffy looked directly where Dawn was standing.

Nobody was surprised when Dawn suddenly appeared with Giles's foot on her. He quickly moved it off as Hermoine appeared and the boys flung off the cloak. The four of them looked ashamed, but fearless at the same time.

"Go back to your d-"

Buffy was cut off by the movement outside. Within an instant ten masked Death Eaters burst into the hall. On their heals was exactly ten vampires.

"A vampire for each" Willow whispered, now understanding why there were only ten vampires.

The wizards wouldn't have power of a great number of them and this way they would easily each control one.

It was one of the Death Eaters who struck first, sending a stunning curse directly at Willow. But it didn't anything to her as she had placed her own Wiccan shield on herself earlier. She although didn't think it would last very long as it was shielding against a different type of magic.

Buffy and Xander, the only two without any great magical power, launched into their physical fight. Buffy decapitated one vampire with the scythe while Xander continued to fight with other weapons. It felt so natural for the pair, yet the situation was slightly unnatural for them as they were the only two forced to perform physical battle. Buffy and Xander did have some magical skills, but there wasn't much of a chance of them disarming a Death Eater who grew up with magic.

Piper wasn't using her wand. Instead she chose to duck curses, attempt to freeze Death Eaters (Voldemort had done his research, Piper found they were immune) and try to have a good enough aim to blow one of the Uber-vamps up. A vampire attempted to jump Xander from behind while he cursed a masked Death eater.

"Thanks" Xander called as the vampire turned to dust.

The battle had begun.

-----

The four students had somehow ended up in the Charms classroom. The battle had been raging on for a while and the students had been separated from the adults. Two of the Death Eaters had managed to use a few well-placed spells in order to chase the students away from the adults. They had also taken two of the vampires with them, which meant it was a completely even fight, in terms of numbers.

"We can do this the easy or the hard way" The female Death Eater spoke, quoting some movie. "I have a knife here. The boy can simply cut himself and give me the blood and the vampires will not attack you"

_Does she think we're stupid?_ Harry thought to himself remembering a similar conversation he had with Lucius six months ago. In fact the situation was extremely similar. That thought pained Harry considering one of the outcomes of that confrontation. He was determined not to fall into the trap. There was no way they were going to need rescuing this time. The only person he had to really worry about herr was Dawn as opposed to Ginny, Luna and Neville at the Ministry.

"Of course we can do it the more painful way. We stun you all and let the vampires go wild. You see there's not much blood in the forest for them to drink and the blood of witches and wizards is a rare treat for-"

"Incendio!" Hermoine shouted, pointing her wand at one of the vampires.

It burned for a few seconds before crumbling to dust. The sight for everyone in the room, besides Dawn had captured their attention for a few seconds. The bright fire burned itself onto their retinas as well as the vampire's body.

"Inc-"

"Accio wand!" The Death Eater shouted at the same time as Dawn.

Since she had not been practicing witchcraft for very long it was easy for the Death Eater to take the wand. Dawn refused to look scared. She had no weapons with her now. Dawn wished she had the sword she had used the last time she faced the Ubervamps. Dawn quickly erased that wish from her mind. It was not the time to make wishes. She remembered what Buffy had told her. Weapons are not power.

"That's it. All bets are off" The second, this time male, death eater spoke.

"I don't remember placing any bets in the first place" Harry smirked.

The male death eater didn't bother replying to Harry's comment. Instead he quickly stunned Dawn, which resulted in the same stunning spell being sent back at him. Hermoine had missed though. The vampire had been set loose heading towards Ron who was desperately trying to hit it with Incendio, but the vampire was too quick. Harry was dueling with the female death eater, while Hermoine with the male. They each knew Dawn was fine and there was no time to tend to her. Dawn just hadn't gotten out of the way in time. Her mind had been more focused on the vampires rather than the Death Eaters.

As the vampire closed in on Ron he finally managed to hit it with the spell. The Death Eaters could see the vampire burning up only inches away from Ron's skin. He was lucky that his robes didn't catch on fire. Ron was terrified in those few seconds. He had a feeling that spiders were no longer going to be his greatest fear.

Hermoine's downfall came when she turned to see what was happening with Ron. She had forgotten the advice Giles had told them. Turning you're back on the enemy is the worst thing possible you can do in a duel. Giles was right. Hermoine's body turned stiff as she fell to the ground.

"Accio Weasley's blood" Hermoine's attacker called holding out a small test tube that was magically filled with Ron's blood.

"No!" Harry shouted as Ron slumped to the floor.

"It's all right ickle Harry" The female Death Eater spoke very much like Bellatrix Lestrange. "Voldemort will be dealing with you personally."

Harry couldn't do anything more as the Death Eaters fled the scene. He went to Ron's side first. Harry hadn't heard of anyone magically taking blood from another with the accio spell. He didn't even know it could even be done. It did make the vampires rather pointless then. Harry guessed they were more of a distraction than anything. Something to keep Buffy from attacking wizards who aren't physically strong.

Harry had no idea what the effect for Ron would be even if there didn't appear to be much of his blood taken. Somehow the Death Eater managed to only take what she needed, but it had still made Ron blackout.

"Enervate, Enervate, Enervate" Harry brought Dawn, Hermoine and Ron back to consciousness.

"What was that?" Dawn asked slowly as Harry helped her up. "I just felt myself freeze and fall down."

"Stunning spell." Hermoine replied, angry that she allowed herself to be hit.

"Oh. So that's what it feels like to get hit by one. It looks a little different when you see someone else get hit" Dawn commented remembering her defense lessons.

She pitied Xander and Ron for the times he had played dummy while Hermoine and Harry taught the others the spell. Then Dawn remembered Paige was there to instantly heal them and she lost her sympathy for them.

"So Harry are you planning to help me up too or 'cause I'm not a girl I don't get help" Ron joked as he sat himself up.

Ron was pretty white in his face. There were a couple of small spots in his arm where the blood had come from. There was no blood coming out of them, but they weren't the most natural looking spots.

"I think we should get you to the hospital wing Ron. I don't think this was a good idea" Hermoine sighed as she and Harry helped Ron up.

"Gee Hermoine what gave you that idea?" Ron sarcastically snapped.

- - --

While the students headed to the hospital wing, Paige ran down the hall rapidly followed by Phoebe passing them on the way. Hermoine told them what happened in about ten seconds before the pair continued to sprint down the hall. Piper had somehow been separated during the fight the same way the teenagers had been. Together the sisters bolted down the hall as fast as they could. Paige would have orbed to her sister if she thought it would be faster. There was no need for words between the two younger Halliwell sisters. They could feel what was going on. Piper was being attacked. She was being hurt.

They found her slumped against a wall. There was no sign of any Death Eaters or Uber-vamps near her. Just Piper with her eyes closed and her wand about a meter in front of her. A couple of potion bottles were also smashed around her. Including the one that was meant to heal her injuries. Paige was first to rush to her sister's side. Since she hadn't had a job before coming to Hogwarts Paige was able to go running everyday while Phoebe didn't have the time.

"She's out" Paige called to Phoebe as she made sure Piper was actually still alive.

When Paige grabbed her sister's wrist to check for a pulse out of the corner of her eyes she saw two punchers in her sister's milky neck. They sat just above Piper's necklace of a small cross. Evidently it had little effect against the vampires. It was likely that they were so thirsty for blood they didn't care about the burns. Paige guessed that the vampires had drunken a little from Piper before the wizards pushed them aside to collect the blood. Paige turned and looked at Phoebe with a defeated look on her face.

"They got her blood"

Phoebe let out a single swear word under her breath. Paige quickly healed Piper's wounds bringing her sister to the conscious world again. Piper's eyes slowly fluttered open. The first thing she noticed was Paige's red hair. The face was still blurry, but after a few seconds Paige's features sharpened.

"Do you know what happened?" Paige questioned as Phoebe kneeled down on the floor next to her. She had Piper's wand in her hand.

"Bloody death eaters. I couldn't even freeze them. They knew who we were. One of them was taunting me" Piper muttered. Then she gave a small smile realizing what she had said. "I said bloody. We've spent too much time in England"

Paige and Phoebe exchanged a small grin between them.

"She's fine" Phoebe said helping her sister up.

"They got my blood" Piper told them as she felt her neck.

"We know. Ron's blood was magically extracted from him. Willow's blood was safe last we heard" Paige filled Piper on what had happened during the battle that was possibly still going on.

"So I got bitten by a vampire for nothing!" Piper complained.

"Yeah I guess so. Hermoine thinks the vampires were a distraction. I have to agree with her on that one." Paige replied.

"Big, strong, gruesome things that can drain the life from you. Yep-big distraction. But you know I probably would have been just as distracted if they waved a naked Pierce Bronson in front of me" Phoebe attempted to lighten the mood.

After all there was little to be done now. It was a rare occurrence, but they had failed. Piper knew exactly what her sister was trying to do, but it wasn't going to work on her.

"Tell me again why we didn't want the Order out here helping?" Piper asked.

She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it again to see how it sounded _after_ her blood was taken.

"We didn't want to bother them. Their plans are for the long-term war. This is a short-term thing. Plus Buffy had told us that we were strong enough to do this on our own. A way to show Voldemort that we weren't afraid of him" Paige answered.

They began to walk down the hall in the same direction Paige and Phoebe had come running a few moments ago.

"Cowards…mother f-"

"Buffy!"

The Halliwells had reached the main foyer where the battle was now over. Buffy was standing by the door looking incredibly annoyed. It was Giles who stopped her from swearing. He was tending to Willow and Xander who had been hit by something. The Halliwells picked it right away. The Death Eaters had escaped, taking Ron's; Piper's and they guessed Willow's blood too. Paige was surprised to see that no students were out of their beds wondering what was going on. Then she remembered that Flickwick had put silencing charms on all the dorms so the students would have no clue what was going on.

Buffy turned to see the three coming down the stairs and groaned. She knew the look on their faces. It was the same look Paige had given Phoebe before. As the threesome slowly came down the stairs Buffy explained what happened.

"This is going to make things a lot harder. One of those Death Eaters, I couldn't tell which one because he or she was masked, must have hidden behind some of the vamps or something because I don't think any of us noticed it until it was too late. The Death eater jinxed both Xander and Willow and took Willow's blood before I could dust the vamp I was battling"

"Just because he succeeded tonight doesn't mean Voldemort will fulfill the prophecy" Willow groaned getting over the floor.

She was covered in small cuts; similar to the ones Doc gave Dawn a little over two years ago. She and Xander had been hit with a double curse to stun them and make small incisions as to draw blood. They had to give the evil side credit for their creativity in getting the blood. If one plan hadn't worked there was another way to get the blood.

"They didn't even need the vampires." Buffy was upset that she had been so distracted by them.

Since she wasn't allowed to kill the Death Eaters, Buffy simply killed the vampires instead. It was her natural instinct as the wizards and witches didn't have much of a physical ability. The vampires also sensed Buffy as a Slayer because they launched onto her even though Xander was much more helpless.

"We'll just be better prepared next time" Phoebe stated trying to be positive, but it had the opposite affect.

It just depressed people more knowing that they would be back on Valentines Day to collect more blood.

"I'm beginning to think it was a myth that Halloween is a day for evil to rest" Willow moaned.

"Beginning? Will where have you been the last seven years?" Xander reverted back to his usual joking form.


	10. Christmas Strike

The Christmas Strike

A/N: Light fluffy chapter. I have developed a few things in this part, but they won't show until later.

It was a little under two months since the attack. The group had nothing else to do but move past it. They could have reflected on their mistakes, how stubborn they had been to refuse help, how they should have known that the vampires were distractions. But it wasn't going to help. This was especially helpful to Harry as he saw that some of people he was growing to admire could so easily move past events. It helped Harry a little to get over the disaster he had caused at the ministry in June.

Since Halloween, Giles had taken lead in having the entire group, students included, research the 'Hope of Light' part of the prophecy. After the battle they were certain that Voldemort and his followers would take a different route to collect the blood of friends. The 'Hope of Light' was soon appearing to be the only choice of action. The only problem was that the group knew little about it. Hermoine had been very helped as she knew most of the books in the library, which turned out not to be much of a help. Giles had Wesley send some books over, but there was still a lot of reading to do.

It was late one Thursday night when Xander decided he had enough. The next day was the last day of classes before the Christmas break, during which Xander had foreseen much more research and he didn't need any magic ability to know it.

"That's it. I call for a Christmas strike," Xander said to a silent room.

The four students were not there that night. Dawn was always overloaded with homework since she had to do extra work in order to come close to the level of her peers so she was naturally in the library with all the books she needed. Hermoine was in the library too with the two boys. She and Harry had a nasty potions test the next day while Ron had to work on some extra transfiguration work he hadn't completed.

"Oh I agree. I miss simplicity. Most of our information is right here in the good old book of shadows" Phoebe added, patting her family's spell book which sat next to her.

Phoebe had been reading one of the books she had found in the restricted section of the library and not having any luck. At her feet Willow lay on the floor using her laptop to search the Internet. Dumbledore had worked together with Willow to cast a spell, which allowed only Willow the use of her laptop. So far it was just as useful as the book Phoebe was reading. Giles was heavily into the research with a pile of books next to him on the small table where Buffy, Paige and Piper were marking defense against the dark arts work for various years.

Leo was the only adult who was not doing any work. He was up in his and Piper's dorm sleeping. It had been a long day for him with his charges so Piper had told him to go to bed and to take Wyatt with him.

"The sooner you find something the better" Buffy stated. "I've never liked things happening at the last minute"

"But you work so well under pressure" Xander argued. "And what do you mean, me find something?"

"Well it's obvious that I'm not going to. I'm not research girl. When have I ever been the one to solve the mystery?" Buffy questioned.

"Solve the mystery. No wonder you call yourselves the Scoobies, Daphne" Paige joked.

"Yeah that'd be me. You know last year I was terrified at the fact that I would be giving advice to teenagers. Now I'm sitting here marking papers and deciding their future" Buffy decided to change the subject.

"Didn't you train those potentials last year?" Piper asked. Buffy nodded. "That's sort of like what you're doing now. Except we're getting them to write essays on vampires and banshee's and curses"

"It just feels weird to be teaching without any kind of degree" Buffy commented.

Everyone else felt they had to agree with her. They were more than happy to be teaching and had received tips from other teaches including Dumbledore. Although there were seven different professors for the one subject, the entire group was quickly becoming one of the most popular defense against the dark arts professors. Of course they still had heavy competition from Lupin's days.

"Ohhh! I think I found something!" Willow excitedly said to the room.

Giles looked down at the young redhead with a hopeful look in his eyes. He hadn't taken part in the conversation as he was keen to know more about the 'Hope of Light'.

"Oh…" Willow's face fell only seconds before everyone else's. "Don't worry. It's about extracting three hearts from three friends"

"That's it. Strike! Strike! Strike!" Xander repeated his earlier message.

Although many students were returning home for the Christmas break Harry, Ron Hermoine and Dawn would be staying at Hogwarts. Not all were staying by choice though. There was no way Harry was returning to the Dursley's for Christmas and since Ron and Hermoine had both decided to stay at Hogwarts he wasn't going to spend Christmas with the Dursley's. Dawn had no choice either. Buffy was her legal guardian and all the professors had elected to stay at Hogwarts. They had been told that they were able to travel home, but Hogwarts looked too magical and inviting they didn't want to leave.

Piper had considered convincing her family to head back to the manor for Christmas, but she had seen Wyatt happily playing in the snow with Leo while she took Care of Magical Creatures. (Hagrid was busy tending to his 'little' brother) There wasn't really any snow in California so Piper thought it would be all right to stay at Hogwarts, even though she had missed the states a little. Piper later discovered if she had wanted to go back she would have been outnumbered anyway. Both Paige and Phoebe were keen to stay at the school because it would be different and they had some of their close friends there now.

- - - -

Harry was surprisingly the first one awake on Christmas day. He and Ron were the only two boys in the dorm that Christmas. Harry looked to Neville's bed and felt sorry for his friend. Neville would be at St.Mungo's with his grandmother and his parents. Harry lightened a little when he looked towards Seamus's and Dean's beds. The boys had both gone to Dean's home for Christmas because Dean's family had headed 'down under' for a change in season. Harry couldn't imagine Christmas in t-shirts and swimming.

"Merry Christmas Harry" Ron said from his bed.

"Merry Christmas Ron" Harry replied.

"I wonder if the girls are up?" Ron asked as he and Harry headed down to the common room.

Ron's question was answered when they saw two bushy haired girls warming up in front of the fire. It was a slight shock for the boys considering they had both always been up before Hermoine each Christmas.

"Hey! Merry Christmas!" Dawn happily said.

Although she was heading towards her eighteenth, Dawn was always a kids at heart. She loved Christmas, like Anya for the presents, but mostly because it meant her obscure family was together. She gave each of the boys a Christmas hug.

"Merry Christmas Dawn" Harry and Ron said together.

Harry couldn't help but smile at Dawn. It was early in the morning and she just had so much energy. He knew the past year for Dawn had been hard on her, yet here she was still smiling. Harry had to admire that. He had gone in the complete opposite direction when Sirius died. He knew Dawn wasn't happy hyper girl all the time, but there was something at Hogwarts that brought the best out in her.

"Ready to go wake up the others?" Dawn asked.

"Oh I don't know about that. I know we're a little bit closer to them than most adults, but they're still our professors" Hermoine answered. "Maybe we should just wait until breakfast"

"Yeah they're also my big sister and my friends. And don't worry about the Halliwells. Piper's got a little boy she's got to get used to this" Dawn answered as she gathered up her unwrapped presents and headed out of the room.

"Don't think you've got a choice Hermoine" Ron added as he picked up his own pile of presents.

- - -

"Wake up!" A familiar voice called from the common room of the American professors. "It's Christmas"

"Do you want to advara kadvanra her or shall I?" Phoebe muttered to Xander upstairs in her dorm.

Late Christmas Eve Xander had been feeling a little down. He thought he was over Anya's death, but Christmas had brought back memories. During his visit to Hogsmeade Xander had seen so many promotions for people to buy their Christmas presents at a particular store. It was commercialising a world wide holiday in order to make money. Anya would have loved it.

Phoebe, who had been spending more time with her new friend since they arrived at Hogwarts, realised this and decided to comfort him. Willow was slightly upset by this, as it was usually her job to do this. Xander had done it for her when Tara died and she had done it for him not long after Anya died. But Willow let it slide. She wasn't going create another triangle like there had been with Anya.

So since they had been up late just talking Xander had crashed in Phoebe's bed. There was no sudden romance between them, after all Phoebe was still sharing a dorm with Paige.

"I could probably cast a spell from her to send her far away" Paige mumbled from her own bed.

"C'mon sleepy heads, you know Dawnie's not going to give up." Willow poked her head into the dorm.

She had obviously just gotten out of bed. Her red hair was in tangles and there were still bags under her eyes. It wasn't long before the others had dragged themselves out of bed to follow Willow down the stairs. Buffy had bumped into them on the way, saying that Giles was the only one who remained in bed. Both Piper and Leo were the first of the adults downstairs after Dawn had called out. They had already been woken by Wyatt's cries of hunger a few moments before.

"You know, not all of us worship Santa. Jewish remember" Willow reminded Dawn.

It was a line Willow remembered saying to Dawn's sister a few years ago when Buffy had encountered The First when it attempted to kill Angel.

Ron had no idea what Willow meant by the term 'Jewish'. He had never heard that word before in his life. Then again he had never taken muggle studies either and knew nothing about 'muggle religions'. Ron would never admit it, not even to Harry, but the first thought that popped into his head was that 'Jewish' had to do to with Willow's choice of sexuality. Knowing that Hermione had the answers to almost everything Ron turned his friend . She quickly explained to him about other muggle December celebrations including fasting. Ron found this utterly ridiculous and couldn't understand why anyone would want to deny themselves food. Hermione just rolled her eyes.

It wasn't too long until everyone was downstairs and exchanging presents. Giles was naturally the last one up being the oldest and least excited by the day. It was only when Dawn had threatened to stand by his bed and precede to sing one of Peeves dirty versions of 'The 12 days of Christmas' that finally got the ex-watcher up.

"Er…Dawn?" Harry tapped on her shoulder.

The group had finished exchanging gifts of various sweets, magical and non-magical objects and of course for Buffy numerous amounts of clothes and shoes. They were about to head down for a quick breakfast then going out on Hogwarts grounds to play in the snow.

"I have something else to give you. In addition to the stuff from Fred and George's shop" Harry quickly explained as he handed Dawn a plain looking book. "I only finished putting it together last night. Collin and Dennis went home for Christmas and forgot to leave me the…well open it and find out"

Dawn did as Harry said. The book was not as plain on the inside as it was on the outside. It was a photo album. All the pictures inside were of Dawn's friends. Some of the pictures were from previous years, but most were taken in that school year. Dawn turned the page to find photos of herself and her sister taken before the chaos began on Halloween. A few more photos contained the rest of the Scoobies and the Halliwells.

"I figured after what happened at Sunnydale you probably didn't have any time to grab any photo albums. Hagrid actually gave me the idea. He gave me a photo album of pictures he collected of my parents at the end of my first year" Harry explained.

"Thank you" Dawn said taking her eyes off the waving pictures.

- - -

After breakfast the group headed out to the snow. While it was cold over winter, it had rarely snowed in both San Francisco and Sunnydale. The group had somehow automatically split themselves into two groups for a snowball fight. A couple of younger students who were also outside watched as professors and students began to build up walls. It was an odd sight to see professors interacting with their students in that way. Only Giles had hung back. Even with Xander's taunting of Giles being a stuff old English folk, Giles was not at all tempted by a snowball fight.

"Snowball!" Paige called for a snowball aimed at her head and sent it right back at the other red haired professor.

"Hey! No magic!" Willow called out.

The snowball fight was a rather immature event for the professors, especially the way they interacted with their students, but they all enjoyed themselves. Ginny, and Luna joined in although the only snowballs they threw were towards their classmates rather than the professors. Towards the end of the fight Peeves had decided to join in, choosing to target Giles who was watching from afar with Wyatt.

Lunch was an interesting affair. Most of the people who remained at Hogwarts consisted of those who were involved with the prophecy. Many students had returned home for Christmas, like they had in Harry's third year. Naturally the other professors at the school at acted a little more formal and had not gone anywhere near the snowball fight in the morning. However they were happy to chat with the American professors.

"These decorations look amazing Flitwick" Willow complimented.

"They better" Ron muttered to Ginny who was sitting next to him. "It took me forever to untangle the tinsel that Peeves wrapped around me. I swear if I hear him singing 'O weasel tree' again I might just join Filch's campaign to get rid of him"

The afternoon was spent doing various things, but mostly just lounging about the common room. After dinner that night Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione set off some of their fireworks they had been sent by the twins.

"Wow. I'm used to having fireworks at my place at Christmas time, but I think seeing the real ones is slightly better" Xander told Dawn as they watched the fireworks spell out 'Merry Christmas'.


End file.
